







i 

■>->:?■ 






^^' J'"-- 



-u 



^^i^" 

*.,i 









..-^ .>^^A,% ^<^. .V' •^^ 







:^ 
















■»7 



c: 







L^-- 



'% 



■/\v, j/'xjm^j^ 









°o 






o V 












.v^^ 






.0^ 






i^: 




:-, "^"M; 






K 



5 ' ' 


















\.; 









o 



.*" 









I 









.^''■ 



I V^ 









« 



w 




^o- 



A 



M 



■^ 



•* 

??^- 



-3.^ 



A'- 



>'7 



Mayor Gaynor's Letters and Speeches 



.-^■ 



/ sometimes write a letter — just for fun." 

JNIayor Gaynor 



A 



His letters bear his mind" 

Shakespeare 



Some of 

MAYOR GAYNOR'S 
LETTERS 

AND SPEECHES 




New York 

GREAVES PUBLISHING COMPANY 

Tribune Building 



F/Z% 






Q^ll 



Copyright, 1913, by 

Greaves Publishing Co. 



Entered at Stationers' Hail 
London, England 



©ci.Aa5ib:it> 



Introduction 

MAYOR GAYNOirS LETTEliS need no intro- 
duction to the American public. The imrpose of 
thl^ booh is not to make them better known, but to collect 
some of them nuder one cover. 

The letters here given are not one-tenth of the lettera 
of Mayor Gaynor 'which should be published. To cull 
them out and get them all together would be a great task. 
The number of the Mayor s letters is prodigious. His 
letters were dictated from day to day. Most of them, of 
course, concern the government of the city, but what may 
be ccdled "occasional letters," or letters on general topics, 
occur constantly. 

For directness, penetration, and wisdom, the Letters 
of Mayor Gaynor stand alone. Those who have only read 
an occasioned letter from his pen published— and often 
''edited" — in some daily newspaper, will be surprised by 
the literary merit, range of thought, jjhilosophy, common 
sense and incisiveness of these productions. 

As to their style the Mayor hiinself has best described 
it in his reply to a question on " tlie art of letter writing," 
which appeared in " The New York Times." He said: 

" What is this you want — just a word about 
" the art of letter-writing? I fear you will find no 
" art in my letters. I only aim to express what I 
" have in my mind briefly and in the most express- 
" ive woi'ds. The most expressive words are short 
" words. I always know I am going to have a time 
" of it and must be patient when a man with a 
" vocabulary comes to talk with me. It is the same 
"when such men and women write letters. They 
" cause much unnecessary wear and tear in this 
" world. 

" If you want a good vocabulary , read the Bible 
" and simple books. But in the end good sense is the 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

" fonndaiion of good language. The trouble with 
" most writers and speakers is that they are all the 
•^ time ' trying: Don't try— just write or say what 
" ijou mean. Naturally you may ornament it a 
" little with nice words and phrases here and there, 
" hut do not try to. If you do you spoil it. Let 
" your mind he unambitious and content, and then 
" you will better express yourself. What is the 
" best way to write things, you ask? Often the best 
"way is not to write them. But if you do the 
" simple way is the best." 

Mayor Gaynor discusses a wide range of topics— pass- 
ing, with nimble thought, " from grave to gay, from lively 
to severe.'' There is much similarity between the writings 
of Mayor Gaynor and those of Benjamin Franklin, whom 
he so much admires. 

The Mayor's letters are, on the xvhole, genial; or, even, 
as he says in one of them, jovial. Mostly, he says just 
what he likes; indulging in a luxury few can aford in 
these diplomatic days. Some of his Literary Letters— 
notably that to Dr. Morrison on the Birthplace of the Poet 
Burns, the one to Mr. R.A.C. Smith on Don Quixote and 
that to Rev. Robert W. McLaughlin on Washington and 
Lincoln, deserve a permanent place in literature; as, in- 
deed, do many others. 

Mayor Gaynor s speeches — a few of which are here 
printed — dealing with political, economic and social prob- 
lems, deserve serious consideration. 

W. B. Northrop. 



Biographical Sketch 

(From The Evening Sun, New York, June 26, 1911.) 

WILLIAM J. GAYNOR was bom and brought up 
on a farm near Oriskany, in Oneida County, New 
York. He is of mixed Irish and Enghsh ancestry. 
The neighborhood in which he Kved was called 
" Skeeterboro." Plis was the usual life of a boy on a farm 
in a poor country. He worked in the fields and woods 
and did the chores. He went to the little district school 
each winter for a few weeks. He afterward went to the 
village school and the seminary and afterward taught 
school, and finally achieved a good education. 

He settled in Brooklyn, N. Y., in 1875, at the age of 
about 24. He did newspaper work. Then he practiced law. 
His rise in his profession was steady. He was a student 
and was careful in his practice. He settled all the cases he 
could, but when he had to fight in court he was a formidable 
antagonist. 

Cleans Up Flatbush 

He early began to take an interest in public affairs, 
but not as a partisan. He at first lived in the towTi of 
Flatbush, adjoining Brooklyn. Its population was about 
10,000. Its government was dependent on two poKtical 
bosses and was thoroughly bad. There was much waste 
and peculation. All sorts of favoritism existed. There 
were forty saloons, only one A\dth a license. There was a 
colony of road houses frequented by drivers to Coney 
Island and the beaches. Gaynor was then a silent young 
fellow. But he had tried several law cases at the town 
hall with great ability. He said one day that the govern- 
ment of the town was a disgrace and the people should not 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

suffer it. People thought of the two opposing bosses and 
smiled, for whichever was in power the result was the 
same. And many even said that they had an understand- 
ing and worked together. The next thing was that every- 
one received a printed circular from Mr. Gaynor inviting 
him to a public meeting in the town hall to select candi- 
dates for the approaching election. The hall was packed. 
Both bosses were there. The chairman was a tool of theirs. 

His Early Political Creed 

A motion was put naming candidates. Young Gaynor 
quietly handed up a resolution as a substitute, naming a 
new set of men from top to bottom. The chairman refused 
to submit it to a vote. Mr. Gaynor got up on a bench in 
full view, and the whole town learned that he was not as 
quiet as he looked. He reviewed the condition of things 
in the crispest words. He demanded that the chairman 
put the substitute to a vote, and told him that if he did 
not do so it would not be at all difficult to put him out of 
the window and put another in his place. The whole meet- 
ing broke out in cheers. The chairman lost his nerve and 
put the substitute. It was overwhelmingly carried. Two 
days later the two opposing bosses combined on a ticket, 
but were beaten three to one at the polls. Gaynor had 
been asked to run for the Legislature but refused. He said 
he wanted no office. The newspaper accounts of that time 
show that in his speech he declared, as he often has since, 
that " ours is a Government of laws and not of men." He 
even read that famous passage to that effect from the 
Massachusetts Bill of Rights. 

As A Police Officer 

When the government was organized the town board 
insisted on appointing Mr. Gaynor Police Commissioner, 
and he was prevailed on to serve. He went quietly and 
systematically to work. And everything was done in a 
strictly lawful manner. No lawless police raids were 
made, but in a few months the colony of evil places was 

8 



MAYOR GAYNQR^S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

empty and every hotel and saloon had a lieense. The 
town was " cleaned up. ' in a year JNlr. Cxaynor resigned 
his office. His work was done. He made the police i'orce 
respect the law, and not do as they liked. He has tried to 
teach the same lesson to the 10,000 policemen of the City 
of A^ew York. They are not permitted to do any unlawful 
violence. He has taught them and the community that 
" the way to enforce the law is the way prescribed by the 
law itself," as he has so often declared. When a distin- 
guished citizen once said to him that that way would not 
detect and punish crime he ansv^^ered dryly, " Then don't." 
Soon afterward Mr. Gaynor moved into Brooklyn. 
The politicians distrusted him. He did not court them, 
but went his way. The ring quietly bought up a private 
water company which supplied a part of the city. They 
paid about $200,000 for it. Soon after they made a con- 
tract with the Mayor and Comptroller and Auditor, sell- 
ing it to the city for $1,500,000. By this time Mr. Gaynor 
had accumulated some money in his profession and could 
spend some. He brought a taxpayer's suit to prevent the 
carrying out of the contract. He gave all the facts, show- 
ing it to be, as he said, " a spoliation of the funds of the 
city." The court contest aroused the public to the highest 
interest. Mr. Gaynor won through all the courts. It was 
a year of hard work, with every powerful political and 
financial interest against him. First they laughed at his 
suit. But he only grew more silent and grim and worked 
harder and harder. The fraud was killed, and he paid all 
the expense, $14,000. He next took proceedings and com- 
pelled the city officials to collect the millions of arrears of 
taxes from the elevated railroads. The members of the 
ring had large holdings in them, given for their influence, 
and protected them. He took similar proceedings to ex- 
pose the so-called Columbian frauds and prevented the 
fraudulent bills from being paid. He did other similar 
things. His activity was marvellous. The common saying 
was that he heard every mn fall in the citv and tliat nothing 
escaped Iiis attention. 



MAYOR G AYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Refuses Mayoralty Nomination 
A iMayoralty election wa^ now coining on in Brook- 
lyn. Everyone turned toward Mr. Gaynor. Honest peo- 
ple wanted liim for Mayor. The politicians sneered and 
said, " That is it; that is what he has been after all along; 
we will now see him as a self-seeker." A great meeting 
was held in the Academy of Music which named him for 
Mayor. But he would not run. He said no one would 
ever be able to say that the pubhc services he had rendered 
were with a view to get into office. He was even touchy 
about it. And that characteristic has manifested itself 
ever since in the many times he has been asked to be a 
candidate for Governor and Mayor. Another was nom- 
inated instead. Later he was nominated for Justice of 
the Supreme Court. He wrote dechning. But leading 
citizens induced him to run to help the city ticket, the city 
being part of the ten coimties making up the judicial dis- 
trict. There was a majority the other way of about 30,000 
in the district and the ring majority in the city was about 
20,000 by past elections. But Mr. Gaynor was elected 
by a majority of over 30,000, and the ring was as badly 
beaten in the city. 

This campaign led to the destruction of the celebrated 
boss of Coney Island, John Y. McKane. He was chief 
of police, and held several other offices in the town of 
Gravesend, now a part of the borough of Brooklyn. Al- 
though there were only 10,000 inhabitants in the town he 
had a padded voting list of several thousand. He had 
been swinging tliis vote in a mass from one party to the 
other for several years. He gave it to Cleveland for 
President one year and the next time to Harrison. He 
also used this vote in local and county elections as he saw 
fit. The votes were cast by a gang of followers whom he 
used as repeaters. At this election he concealed the poll 
lists until Election Day, so that nobody could see them 
and cause them to be revised or purged. Mr. Gaynor de- 
clared publicly that if McKane conducted a fraudulent 
election that year he would have him sent to state's prison. 

10 



MAYOR GAYx\OR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

McKaiie only laughed at this aiul went right aliead. J\ir. 
Gaynor had watchers appointed, and obtained an injunc- 
tion from the Supreme Court to protect them. On Elec- 
tion Day 3Iclvane surrounded the poUing place with Ms 
policemen, and no one was allowed to go into the polling- 
place unless he had a card issued by jMcKane. When the 
watchers presented themselves with the injunction Mc- 
Kane exclaimed, " Injunctions don't go here." He set his 
thugs on the watchers and beat them unmercifully so that 
they had to run for their lives. The entire vote was cast 
in opposition to the Gaynor ticket. A good many said 
now that Mr. Gaynor was elected he probably would for- 
get his threat to send McKane to State's prison. But 
he did not. He wrote to the Governor demanding that 
the Attorney General intervene as the District Attorney 
was on the side of McKane. After some difficulty the 
Governor appointed two special deputy attorney generals. 
Mr. Gavnor furnished them with all the evidence, and 
directed and advised all of the proceedings. The result 
was that jNIcKane and 18 of his men were indicted and all 
of them w^ere convicted and sent to prison. McKane died 
a few years after his seven-year term expired. The work 
done in this matter w^as an object lesson to the whole 
country, and attracted attention from all parts. The 
memory of it still lives among many men. And the work 
w^as done quietly and in order. There was no clamor and 
no false Statements w^ere given out by press agents. Mr. 
Gaynor worked at it quietly and unostentatiously until the 
whole thing was done. Many of the younger generation 
think that Mr. Gaynor's part was to try McKane as a 
Judge, but that is not so. He was the citizen who attacked 
McKane, gathered the evidence against him, and caused 
liim to be prosecuted and convicted. 

NoTxiBLE CaREEK AS JuDGE 

The career of Mr. Gaynor as a judge is well known. 
He was an immense worker and set a new pace. The 
number of cases he tried each year was beyond anything 

u 



MA YOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

theretofore known. The legislative committee on the law's 
delays reported all this several years ago. His opinions on 
the rights of the individual, on inmiunity from unlawful 
arrests and police interference, and on lihel, and other 
kindi-ed things became read and known all over this coun- 
try, and some of them are legal classics. It was not 
thought he would remain long on the bench. But he 
refused to resign to run for Governor, for Mayor of 
Brooklyn and twice for Mayor of Greater New Y^ork. 
At the end of his term he did not seek renomination or say 
a word on the subject. But all of the parties without an 
exception renominated him. He served only two years of 
that term. The last four years as a judge he served as a 
member of the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court 
of the State. 

Only Winner On His Ticket 

But in 1909 he was induced to resign to run for Maj^or 
of New York City. Every one on his ticket w^as beaten 
except himself. He had a majority of 73,000. 

His career as Mayor is known to the whole country. 
He made no promises or alliances to get the office. He 
selected men to head all the twenty-eight departments of 
the city to suit himself. The knowledge and insight which 
he manifested in the workings of the city government was 
an object lesson to everyone. Nothing escaped his atten- 
tion and he knew the way to do everything. He cut off 
milHons of expenses. He abolished boards and bureaus 
that every Mayor before him had supposed to be legal 
fixtures. The story has been so often written and told 
that it need not be repeated. He has made the government 
of the city an object lesson and pattern for the whole 
country. He draws the eyes of Europe even upon the 
city. They know him and talk of him over there almost as 
much as we do here. But he has kept right on. The 
departments have been raised to the highest efficiency. 
This is particularly true of the Police Department, al- 
though grafters were found in it and it has been bitterly 

12 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

assailed. The men are kej^t within the law and made to do 
their duty. The Mayor has caused all appointments and 
Ijromotions to be made in numerical order from a competi- 
tive list. No money or influence is permitted to interfere 
with this. No one is able to make any charges of fraud, 
ring rule or political favoritism in the government of the 
city. Under this man they have simply vanished. Of 
course a man like this has enemies, who growl and abuse 
him. But the Mayor goes right on. The people say, " We 
love him all the more for the enemies he has made." But 
he quarrels with no one and is unjust to no one. 

Mayor as Philosopher 

The philosophical turn of the Mayor's mind has en- 
deared him to the country. He displayed it throughout 
his whole career, but it became more apj)arent in his 
wider field as Mayor. He is called upon to make extem- 
poraneous addresses all the time and has made more than 
anj" ]Mayor, if not more than all the JMayors who preceded 
him, and on all sorts of subjects. And he always has some- 
thing thoughtful and often witty to say. The same is true 
of the many letters he writes. He seems to have no desire 
to conceal his thoughts or opinions, as is the case with 
many politicians. Soon after he became Mayor the public 
was attracted to one of the first of liis long series of public 
letters. A minister of the Gospel wrote to him for a license 
to preach to the Jews in the most congested Jewish quar- 
ter in order to convert them. His answer is in this volume 
(page 21). 

Perhaps this letter also displays the ^layor's own 
profound belief in God, which seems to be his whole creed. 
His use of pure Anglo-Saxon in his oral and written 
speech is remarkable. 

Attempt to Kill TLim 

In August, 1910, a discharged city employee tried to 
assassinate Mayor Gaynor. He came up behind the ]Mayor 
on the deck of an ocean steamer, where the Mayor stood 

13 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

talking with friends who had come aboard to see him off 
to Europe, and placing a pistol close to the back of the 
Mayor's head fired. The powder marks will always 
remain. The bullet entered back of the right ear, and 
changing its course two or three times passed through his 
throat. It was never extracted. At first it was thought 
that thfe Mayor's voice was permanently gone. But it 
came back by degrees, and during the last year he has made 
many public speeches and now his voice is nearly normal. 
This assault on the Mayor revealed a new phase in his 
character, a most unusual physical as well as mental cour- 
age. The concussion rendered him unconscious momen- 
tarily, but he struggled to his feet, and kept j^erfectly cool 
although bleeding from mouth and nose. He did not 
manifest the slightest fear of death, although he and every- 
one thought he was dying. He never speaks of the matter. 

Wouldn't Run for Governor 

Three years ago the unanimous voice of the Democratic 
party of the State called on the Mayor to run for Gov- 
ernor. He carefully considered everything, and then sent 
a letter to the waiting convention saying that as a matter 
of duty to the people of New Y^ork City he could not re- 
sign as Mayor to accept another office. Everyone had sup- 
posed he was going to run for Governor, for his election 
was bevond even a shadow of a doubt. He has since often 
said the office of Mayor was larger than that of Governor, 
and second only to the Presidency. Considering the im- 
mense powers vested in the Mayor of New Y^ork this is 
true. 

The Mayor has all along taken a deep interest in 
national politics, and nothing in that field escapes him. 
His speech on th^ tariff when Cleveland first ran for Presi- 
dent was widely circulated — it was one of the best. He is 
a close student of national questions. For years he spoke 
of favoritism in freight rates as the grossest wrong of the 
age. His recent speech at Yale University (see p. 243) 
and other recent utterances have been widely read. 

14 



Mayor Gaynor ;s Letters and Speeches 



PART I— LETTERS 



His First Letter as Mayor 

January 10, 1910. 

Sir: Please let steps be taken for the immediate re- 
sumption of the running of the stages on Riverside Drive, 
from Seventy-second street to the viaduct, unless there 
be a sufficient reason to report to the contrary. That fine 
drive was made by the City for all, and not for a few. 

Charles B. Stover, Esq., 

Commissioner of Parks, 

New York City. 



An Act of Justice 

January 12, 1910. 
Sir: Please take measures to reinstate Clinton H. 
Smith in his office of secretary, unless there is something 
that should be reported to me to the contrary, and his 
case can, later on, be cahnly dealt with. That done m 
heat or haste is as a rule ill done. We must not only deal 
with people with justice, but also Nvith the appearances ot 

15 



MAY OR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

justice, the latter sometimes being as essential as the 
former. 

Charles B. Stover, Esq., 

Park Commissioner, etc. 

Drivers Might Freeze 

January 19, 1910. 

Sir: As I walked down Flatbush avenue, Brooklyn, 
on my way over this morning, I noticed that all of the 
drivers of a long line of snow wagons which were being 
filled by the shovellers were standing about doing nothing 
or sitting on their wagons. I called one of them to me 
and asked him if the drivers did not help to load the 
wagons. He answered: " No, not when the City removes 
the snow, but when contractors remove it, then we do." 
How about this, please? Should they not take a shovel 
and help? They may freeze to death. 

W. H. Edwards, Esq., 

Commissioner. 

Walkiny 

January 21, 1910. 

To the Mayor of Los Angeles : This will introduce to 
you my long time friend, Edward Pay son Weston, who 
intends to walk from your city to this city, and if you give 
him a good send-off we will give him a good greeting when 
he arrives here. By teaching by his example the taking of 
outdoor physical exercise he is a benefactor to the human 
race and should be treated as such. 

Simplified Spelling 

February 11, 1910. 

Dear Mr. Carnegie: Y'our letter is one of the many 
coming to me about the matter of abolishing the general 

16 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

personal tax. They are all in favor of doing it. But 
yours is the only one expressed in the new simplified spell- 
ing. " I feel compeld " to comphment you in that respect. 
But what about the fate of Roosevelt when he tried it, 
or rather tried to make other people try it, yea or nay? 
I note your expression of earnest hope that I do not 
postpone applying to the Legislature until next year. Of 
course I have no wish to advocate anything contrary to the 
intelligent will of the community. If it calls for the re- 
peal law now I will have it prepared and sent to Albany. 
Or may be a law giving us local option in the matter 
would be more prudent? I note the newspaper editorial 
approvals which j^ou quote. It is a great thing to have 
intelligent,, able and fair newspapers, which most of ours 
are. The less said about the other few the better. 

Andrew Carnegie, Esq. 



Waste in Conde riming Lands 

February 17, 1910. 

Sir: I have concluded that the street opening bureau 
needs to be reorganized, and also the method of acquiring 
lands for City use and the making of awards therefor. The 
said bureau is in even worse condition than I had sup- 
posed. The work there is protracted and made expensive 
beyond endurance. Commissioners of appraisal and 
award invariably take months and j^ears to do what could 
be well done in hours, days or weeks. In that way they 
run up expensive bills for their own fees and expenses 
which the landoAvners have to pay, and also postpone 
necessary improvements. I have cases before me where 
from 4 to 10 years were taken in proceedings to open short 
streets, or a few blocks. In addition to this, grossly ex- 
cessive awards are made. In the acquiring of land for 
citv use, excessive awards are habitual, and the same un- 
necessary time is taken. The awards range from 2 to 

17 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

times the fair value. I am glad to inform you that, as 
might be expected, the Judges who appoint commissioners 
are anxious to put an end to these abuses. It seems to 
me the way is for the Corporation Counsel to have each set 
of commissioners charged by the Judge appointing them 
in respect of the law governing them, and also as to the 
time within which they should complete their work, and in 
the case of dilatory commissioners the Corporation Coun- 
sel should move the court for their removal without com- 
pensation. It may be necessary for j^ou to remove all of 
the appraisers and employ new ones for the future in each 
particular proceeding. The collusion between permanent 
appraisers and unscrupulous attorneys for owners of lands 
being taken is easy and has already been exposed, as you 
know. The cost of commissioners in condemnation and 
street opening proceedings was recently greater than that 
of the entire judicial establishment within the city limit. 

I look to you to make a complete reform in these mat- 
ters, ^lillions in money will thereby be saved annually to 
the City. Remember always that yours is a great ad- 
ministrative department and not one of mere litigation, 
technicalities and delays. I shall be glad to help you so 
much as I can, and I am assured that the Judges will co- 
operate with you. For instance, we are about to acquire a 
block of land in Brooklyn for a ne^v court house. It 
depends on the Judge who appoints the condemnation 
commissioners whether the land shall be taken at its fair 
actual value, or whether the commissioners shall be unfit, 
and also turned loose to make excessive and 'fictitious 
awards, and to remain on the job for years when two or 
three months would be ample time. If the tax commis- 
sioners do their duty in valuing land for taxation, it can- 
not well happen that a commission should make an award 
for land which is more than 10 to 15 per cent, higher than 
such tax valuation. 

A. R. Watson, Esq., 

Corporation Counsel. 

18 



MAYOR GAYNOirS LETTERS AND S 1> 1 : 1-: C II I-: S 

Slow Grototh 

February 2o, 1910. 
JMy Dear IMr. Scott : I thank you very much for your 
letter of February 17. I should not have delayed so 
long in answering. I assure you that you do not have to 
argue one moment with me to get me in sympathy with 
your ideas of simplified spelling. Our spelling has been 
changing for centuries and will continue to change. It 
will not change suddenly, however. It seems to be con- 
trary to the rules of Providence that even good things 
should be done suddenly. How long He sat patiently 
brooding over this earth before it was fit? How slowly 
our bodies mature, and the trees, and the grain of wheat, 
and everything about us in the material world. The same 
holds good in the intellectual M^orld. All good growth is 
slow growth, and even the simplification of spelling must 
have its slow growth. 

Charles P. G. Scott, Esq., 

Manhattan. 

A Learned Ratcatcher 

March 20, 1910. 

Dear Mr. Frey : Your letter of March 15 is at hand, de- 
scribing how your calling of ratcatcher is being constantly 
interrupted by your being summoned to serve as a juror. 

Sooner than have the city overrun with rats and every- 
thing eaten up by them I would have you relieved of jury 
duty. Do you not think we had better have a bill intro- 
duced in the Legislature to exempt ratcatchers from jury 
service ? 

The difficulty is, however, that so many exemptions 
have already been passed by the Legislature that there 
seems to be only the ratcatchers and a few other people 
left to serve on juries. That might possibly impede the 
progress of your bill if sent to Albany. 

I will have to carefully consider the matter, and some 
day when you are down this way come in and we will talk 

19 



MAY OR GAYNOR^S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

it over, and also about rats. I see that you are a classical 
scholar, judging by the motto at the head of your letter. 
JNly experience is that learned men are to be found every- 
where. As we read in Don Quixote: "The moun- 
tains breed learned men and philosophers are found in the 
huts of shepherds." 
Charles M. Frey, Esq. 

Good Friday 

March 25, 1910. 

Dear Dr. Morrison : Your rules of living, which you 
have been so good as to send me, are so sensible and so easy 
to carry out, that I have a strong notion to publish them. 
I am going to read them occasionally and see if I can even 
measurably follow them, for, as you know, I have never 
been very careful of myself. I suppose that before long 
I shall begin to feel the effects of it, and tire out from work. 

This has always been the one day in the year which 
fills me with awe. It is the day of the world's greatest 
tragedy. I see Him all day long hanging from the Cross 
on the hill called Golgotha. How bad they treated him, 
and how the whole world deplores it. I have never been 
able to understand those who have no feeling about Good 
Friday. 

Rev. William Morrison, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

Patrolman's Kind Act 

April 5, 1910. 

[Note: The Mayor received a letter from Mr. George B. 
Dickerson, of Westfield, N. J., telling how his two little boys had 
been to the Hippodrome in New York with their teacher and 
others, and got separated from them and lost, and how a police- 
man found them in the street and directed them how to get home, 
and gave them a dollar to pay their fare, and how they arrived 
home safely. On inquiry the Mayor ascertained that the police- 
man was Patrolman Thomas Sheahan, of the 29th Precinct, and 
he thereupon mailed to liim the letter of Mr. Dickerson and asked 

20 



MAYOR GAYNOK'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



tlic policoiiuui to explain the occurrence. The Mayor received a 
reply from Patrolman Thomas Sheahan, telling in a modest way 
how he found the boys and directed them how to get homo and 
gave them the dollar. The Mayor answered Patrolman Sheahan 
by the following letter:] 

Dear Mr. Sheahan : I am very glad indeed to receive 
your letter of April 4, explaining, in answer to my re- 
quest, how you sent the two little boys home. It was very 
kind of you indeed, and I am certain thej^ will send back 
the dollar whicli you gave them. I have long known from 
personal observation that the patrolmen do many kind 
things, and I am in a position now to hear of many of them 
every day. I shall always be glad to hear from you, and 
also to do anything for you which I can legally and 
properly do. 

Converting the Jews 

April 21, 1910. 

Reverend and Dear Sir : It seems to me that this work 
of proselyting from other religions and sects is very often 
carried too far. Do you not think the Jews have a good 
religion ? Have not the Christians appropriated the entire 
Jewish sacred scriptures? Was not the New Testament 
also written entirely by Jews? Was not Jesus also born 
of the Jewish race, if I may speak of it with due rever- 
ence? Did not we Christians get much or the most of 
what we have from the Jews? Why should any one work 
so hard to proselytize the Jew? His pure belief in the one 
true living God comes down to us even from the twilight 
of fable, and is the one great unbroken lineage and tradi- 
tion of the world. I do not think I should give you a 
license to preach for the conversion of the Jews in the 
streets of the thickly settled Jewish neighborhoods which 
you designate. Would you not annoy them and do more 
harm than good? How many Jews have you converted 
so far? 

Rev. Thomas M. Chalmers, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

21 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



Stoi)s All Arrests Without Warrant for Accidents 

May 6, 1910. 

Sir: Complaint has been made to me that on April 
21st Josej^h F. IMullen, a locomotive engineer of the New 
York Central and Hudson River Railroad Company, was 
arrested without a warrant and locked up by two policemen 
over night; that he was taken to the police court next 
morning and held in $1,000 bail for examination on the 
charge of assault; that he offered Mr. H. B. Dwyer as 
his bondsman; that the Magistrate rejected JNIr. Dwyer 
for the reason that he had once practiced law (which was 
no reason at all in criminal practice ) , and sent the prisoner 
back to jail; that thereupon a Justice of the Supreme 
Court accepted Mr. Dwyer as bondsman and discharged 
the prisoner on bail; that on the examination day the 
officers who made the arrest could furnish no evidence 
against the prisoner; that an adjournment was had, and 
on the adjourned daj^ they could furnish no evidence; that 
subsequently the Coroner called up the 37th Street Police 
Station house and had the prisoner arrested again without 
a warrant; and that he was afterwards discharged again 
for lack of any evidence. 

All this was done because a brakeman on the cars at- 
tached to the said Mullen's engine was hurt while he was 
standing on the running board of the tender of the engine 
in the yard of the New Y^ork Central and Hudson River 
Railroad Company. There was nothing to show that the 
engineer assaulted him. It appears to have been an acci- 
dent. We have all observed that policemen very often 
make similar arrests of motormen and others simply be- 
cause an accident happened. I write this to you not merely 
to redress the wrong wliich was committed to this man, 
but also to have vou do awav with such occurrences in the 
future. The members of the force seem to be under the 
erroneous notion that it is their duty to make arrests in 
all such cases. They should not do so unless there be some 
evidence after careful examination that a felony was com- 

22 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

mitted, and even then they should await the issuing of a 
warrant unless the case he reasonahly clear, and the de- 
fendant may run away. The way is to first make an exam- 
ination and see whether the person has committed a felony 
and whether anybody can testify against him. To arrest 
an enoineer or motorman for assault or manslaugliter 
simply because an accident happened, and without any 
evidence against him, is an oppression forbidden by law. 

William F. Baker, Esq., 

Police Commissioner. 

Big and Little Policemen 

May 9, 1910. 

Sir: This will introduce to you Mr. Joseph Hocker, 
who wants to be a policeman. He says he has under- 
gone the physical examination, and passed, but fears your 
mental test. He is certainly a physical giant, 6 feet 5 
inches tall, and I trust he is an intellectual giant also, be- 
cause we are in need of the latter kind on the police force. 
He is too big for the detective force ; he could not go any- 
where without being seen. Is there no w^ay to get a few 
little men, even hunchbacks and " singed cats," on the 
police force, so that we can make detectives of them ? We 
do not need giants for detectives. We are more in need of 
little fellows who can go through keyholes and knotholes, 
and if they have eyes in the back of their heads also all the 
better. 

To: the Chairman, 

Civil Ser\ice Commission. 



A Govermnent of Laws, Not of Men 

(From The Outlook, June 18, 1910.) 

The people of the City of New York do well to wel- 
come Mr. Roosevelt home. He is of them— bone of their 
bone, flesh of their flesh— and they have " a soft side " for 

23 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

him. Through a long ancestry he is native and to the 
manner born here. And the people of the whole country 
Avill join in the welcome. They have witnessed with 
pleasure the honor done to Mr. Roosevelt in Europe. 
Twice within two generations have tliey now seen the like 
in the case of two of their former Presidents. General 
Grant had not only been President twice, like Mr. Roose- 
velt, but had one of the great military careers of the world 
back of liim. No doubt some of the extraordinary curi- 
osity displaj^ed in Europe to see him and do him honor 
arose from this latter fact. But the chief reason was the 
same as in the case of Mr. Roosevelt, namely, that, having 
been twice President of the United States, and become 
again a private citizen, docile to just authority, he per- 
sonified in the European mind the idea of a government of 
laws as distinguished from a government of men. It is 
that idea, first vitalized on this continent, and afterwards 
followed as an example in Europe, by slow degi'ces and by 
one nation after another, which shall alwavs make one who 
has been in chief rulership over this country an object of 
profound interest and reverence to the rest of the world. 
In one form and another we expressed it in the beginning 
in its threefold division of power in all of our fundamental 
instruments of government, the loftiness of the conception 
being sometimes expressed in equally lofty and feKcitous 
language, as, for instance, in the Massachusetts Bill of 
Rights : 

" In the government of this commonwealth, the 
Legislative department shall never exercise the 
executive and judicial powers, or either of them; 
the Executive shall never exercise the legislative 
and judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial 
shall never exercise the legislative and executive 
powers, or either of them; to the end it may be a 
government of laws and not of men." 

Great problems now confront us for solution, the ac- 
cumulation of more than two generations of men more 

24 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



bent on their individual success, if not greed, than on Ihc 
pubHc weal. Xo few, but all of us, are to blame for it, 
either b}' actual commission or by indifl'erence and neglect. 
With that era now drawing toward its close, let us get our 
standpoint anew in this great conception of government, to 
the end that we may lose all fear, as we most certainly 
shall, of a resort to force to right whatever has grown uj) 
among us that suiteth not a coomionwealth, and has in it 
the canker of death to government of equal opportunity to 
all and favoritism or privilege to none. 



Exhibition of Prize Fight Pictures In Theatres 

July 7, 1910. 

Dear Sir: I thank you for your favor of July 0. 
If it lay in my power to say whether the pictures should 
be exhibited it would not take me long to decide it. I do 
not see how it can do any one any good to look at them. 
But will you be so good as to remember that ours is a gov- 
ernment of laws and not of men. Will you please get 
that well into your head. I am not able to do as I like 
as Mayor. I must take the law just as it is, and you may 
be absolutely certain that I shall not take the law into my 
own hands. You say you are glad to see that the mayors 
of many cities have " ordered " that these pictures shall 
not be exhibited. Indeed? Who set them up as autocrats? 
If there be some valid law giving any mayor such power 
then he can exercise it ; otherwise not. The growing exer- 
cise of arbitrary power in this country by those put in 
office would be far more dangerous and is far more to be 
dreaded than certain other vices that we all wish to mini- 
mize or be rid of. People little Imow what they are doing 
when they try to encourage officials to resort to arbitrary 
power. 

Rev. O. R. MiUer, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

25 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

In the Presence of Death 

St. James, L. I., 

Sept. 3, 1910. 

M}^ dear Sister: Y^oiir letter encouraged me very 
much. I was so glad to get it, for I was feeling depressed, 
although coming from the hospital home had braced me up 
for the time being. I felt shaky and doubtful of myself, 
until Tuesday, the first day I walked out, but now my 
strength is returning fast. The barking neuralgia in all 
the side of my head and mv ear has subsided. The wound 
healed without trouble. You remember how quickly the 
two bad cuts I got when a boy healed, one from an axe 
and the other from a scythe. The doctors looked at the 
scars in the hospital. 

I still find it difiicult to talk, but my voice comes back 
a little every day. But I shall not inflict my ills and aches 
on you. I am sorry for the worry I have caused you all. 
You remember my dog " Spot," when we were children. 
He got hurt once, and crawled under a pile of logs and 
lay there for more than a week before he came out. Well, 
when any trouble happens to me, I feel just like poor 
" Spot " — I would like to crawl under the log pile and 
stay there. 

I have not read any newspaper since I was hurt, nor 
have I been told how the thing happened, except that 
Commissioner Thompson told me on the deck that I had 
been shot by a former employee of the Dock Department. 
I do not remember the name he gave. It is my intention 
never to read a line of what has been published in the 
newspapers about the matter or me since I was hurt. It 
might warp my mind about myself. What I am I am, 
with all my shortcomings, and I am content with that. 

My own knowledge of the occurrence is of course very 
limited and may be inaccurate. I think I shall tell it to 
you now, so that there may be some family record of it, 
and in a year or two I wish you to turn this letter over 
to Rufus to keep. I was taking him with me for com- 

26 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

paiiy. As you know, lie and 1 luivc Iravellijd much to- 
gether. He was on the other side of the ship and did not 
see me shot. 

I was standing on the deck talking with Commis- 
sioners Thompson, Lederle, Edwards, Corporation Coun- 
sel Watson, my secretary, ^Ir. Robert Adamson, and 
several friends who had come aboard to see me off. Mr. 
^lontt, President of Chili, and Mrs. Montt had just 
passed by, and I had spoken a few words with them. i\Ir. 
Adamson pointed out that the ship was dressed with flags 
for me, but I said I did not think it could be for me. My 
next consciousness was of a terrible metallic roar in my 
head. It filled my head, which seemed as though it would 
burst open. It swelled to the highest pitch, and then fell, 
and then rose again, and so alternated until it subsided 
into a continuous buzz. It was sickening, but my stomach 
did not give way. I was meanwhile entirely sightless. 

I do not think I fell, for when I became conscious I 
was on my feet. I suppose they saved me from falling, 
and they were supporting me. My sight gradually re- 
turned, so that after a while I could see the deck and the 
outhnes of the crowd around me. I became conscious 
that I was choking. Blood was coming from my mouth 
and nose and I tried all I could to swallow it so those 
around me would not see it. But I found I could not 
swallow and then knew my throat was hurt. It seemed 
as though it were dislocated. I struggled to breathe 
through my mouth, but could not, and thought I was dying 
of strangulation. I kept thinking all the time the best 
thing to do. 

I was not a bit afraid to die if that was God's will of 
me. I said to myself just as well now as a few years from 
now. Xo one who contemplates the immensity of 
Almighty God, and of His universe and His works, and 
realizes what an atom he is in it all, can fear to die in this 
flesh, yea, even though it were true that he is to be dis- 
solved forever into the infinity of matter and mind from 
which he came. 



27 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

1)1 some way 1 happened to close my mouth tight and 
found i breathed perfectly through my nose. 1 then be- 
lieved 1 could keep from smothering. But I kept choking 
and my mouth kept opening to cast out the blood. But 
much of it ^vent down into my stomach. That night in 
the hospital I had five hard chills in succession, and got 
deathly sick and vomited up this blood all over the bed. 
The poor sister who was w^atching me called the doctors, 
but they said it was a good thing. I felt much better after 
that, but gre^y very weak. The trouble was to get nour- 
ishment as I could not swallow\ 

But I shall not speak of the hospital, but only of my 
recollection (or impressions) of things on the ship. They 
wanted me to lie down on the deck, but I said no, I would 
walk to mv stateroom. I could now see faces, and I 
wanted to get awa}^ from the crowd. I could not bear to 
have them looking at me in the plight I was in, especially 
the crowed of newspaper men, and especially those with 
cameras. Tw^o of them rushed up from the line where 
the}^ all stood and put their cameras right in my face and 
snapped them. I finally put my hand up and I think I 
said " don't." I hope these pictures were not published. 
The other newspaper men acted decently, as they 
always do. 

We were on the opposite side of the ship, and I was 
supported through the gangway down a few steps, and 
then up the same number, and my stateroom was there. 
As we were crossing I said to Commissioner Thompson 
on my right hand to send for two of the best surgeons of 
the city, and be sure and tell them not to discourage me. 
I had difficulty to make him understand me, but he finally 
did. Finding that my wound was not immediately mor- 
tal, I had determined to make a fight for it, and did not 
want any one to come near me who would discourage me. 
Nothing annoys me more tlian to have persons come about 
and express doubts when I have set my mind upon doing 
a thing. 

They lifted me into bed, but had to prop me up on 

28 



MAYOR GAYNOR-S T.KTTERS AND S PEECHES 

account of the choking. I told the poor captain who hent 
over me that I was sorry for the trouble and delay I was 
causing. The ship's doctor and the ambulance doctor who 
soon arrived washed my face and beard and bandaged my 
wound. They carried me in a litter and put me in the 
ambulance. As it started I was filled with joy to see 
my dear Rufe spring up on the rear seat. I knew then 
that I was not to be alone. How relative happiness is in 
this world. He had been encouraging me by words all 
along and kept on doing so, but broke down completely 
in the hospital w^hen manmia arrived, as I afterwards 
learned. 

The excitement being over, I began to grow weak, 
and was quite weak when I was wheeled into the operating 
room. I forgot to tell you that as I stood or was sup- 
ported on the deck I heard some one crying out, " Kill 
him," and others saying, " No, do not kill him." They had 
seized the assassin. I heard no struggle, nor did I hear 
any shots fired, but I concluded that I had been shot in 
the head by an assassin. I did not hear or feel the shot 
that hit me. There was an interval at the first when I 
seem to have been miconscious. 

Though the thing had not entered my head that morn- 
ing, I was not surprised when I realized that I was shot. I 
had had a feeling for some weeks that I might be assaulted 
on account of the anonymous threats I was getting by 
mail. I had not received so many since I was opposing 
the ring corruptions and the McKane conditions in Brook- 
Ivn and Gravesend when I was a voung man. I had 
ceased walking over the Brooklyn Bridge. 

The matter of the pictures of the Reno prize-fight had 
come u]). I had no way as Mayor to stop the theatres 
from showing them. By the city charter their licenses 
were revokable by the judges of the Supreme Court, not 
by the Mayor, and the district attorney and corporation 
counsel decided that there w^as no law forbidding such pic- 
tures. They had been shown for years without objection. 
But the Hearst newspapers kept on denouncing me for 

29 



iMA YQR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

not stopping them. I suppose you know the way they 
had behed me ever since I became Mayor. Finally, one 
day they printed in large type that an officer of the Chris- 
tian Endeavor Society named Lowande had called on 
me at the Mayor's office and asked me on behalf of that 
society to stop the pictures, and that I told him he " was 
a fool and was sent by fools," 

I had never said such a thing, as you maj^ well know. 
It was made up. I learned that Lowande was a process 
server for lawyers. The officers of the Christian Endeavor 
Society put forth a statement of their own motion that 
it was untrue that they had sent Lowande or any one 
else to me, and that he did not represent them. But it 
made no difference. These newspapers went on repeating 
the falsehood, and even tried to get up a public meeting 
to denounce me. 

Meanwhile, people of wicked or disordered minds, of 
whom there are a large number in New York city, would 
cut these articles out and send them to me with abuse 
and threats written on the margin, or else with anonymous 
letters threatening me. Some of them said I would be 
killed. Probably they cared nothing about the pictures, 
but the particular disorder of their minds was inflamed 
by reading how bad a man I was. Finally they printed 
that terrible cartoon of me entitled " The Barker." I was 
dressed up as a ruffian and standing outside of a prize- 
fight ring twirling a cane and barking for people to go 
in and see the sport. Two men slugging each other, one 
of them down and bleeding, were exposed in the ring. 

Think of one who has been more of a library student 
than anything else all his life, and who never even saw a 
boxing match, being pictured like that. But the ignorant 
and disordered minds believed it, and I suppose many 
others who read no other newspaper did, and were nat- 
urally inflamed against such a ruffian being Mayor. That 
was the object these newspapers had in view, although 
they printed all tlie pictures of the fight in the most re- 
volting form, as they had been doing for years with all 

30 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

such fights. Even some sensational ministers wrote to me 
as though they beheved it. It was diu-ing this time that 
it first entered my head that I might be in danger, es])e- 
cially in walking over the Bridge, although earlier in the 
year I had received a few similar threats when these same 
newspapers published that we were discliarging small em- 
ployees but taking on expensive ones. 

Such journalism is, of course, in a])solute defiance of 
the criminal law, and it did not enter my mind to publicly 
call on the grand juries and the district att(n"ney to pro- 
tect me from it, but I was weak and feared peo])le would 
say I was thin skinned. But the time is at hand when 

«■' 

these journalistic scoundrels have got to stop or get out, 
and I am ready now to do my share to that end. They 
are absolutely without souls. If decent people woidd re- 
fuse to look at such newspapers the thing would vjght 
itself at once. The journalism of New York city has 
been dragged to the lowest depth of degradation. The 
grossest railleries and libels, instead of honest statements 
and fair discussion, have gone on unchecked. One cannot 
help sympathizing witli the decent newspa])ers. 

But I will weary you with all this. Tom saw me at 
the hospital twice, and I must write to him. He started 
immediately on hearing that I was hurt. What a good 
heart he always has. Give my love to all. I lojig to see 
you, and to go out to the old farm, and walk the old roads. 
i am certain it would do me good, but I fear I cannot go 
this year. I vvish I could go back to work. It would 
take my mind out of my throat. 

Miss Mary E. Ga3'nor. 

To Men In State's Prison Who Wrote to Him After 
He Was Slwt on August 9, 1910 

St. James, L. I., 

Sept. 15, 1910. 

Dear Mr. Hoyt (No. 749^, Clinton Prison) : I thank 
you exceedingly for your kind letter and am glad to 

31 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AXD SPEECHES 

receive the good will which you send me of yourself and all 
your companions in the prison. I am well aware that 
many of you are not really bad men, but unfortunate men, 
and that God so sees jou. There are many of us who 
would be the same as you are if we had had the same trouble 
and obstacles in our lives. So do not be discouraged. I 
shall not speak of my trouble in view of the greater trouble 
of all of you. Let us all be patient and content. 

Fred M. Hojt, 

Dannemora, N. Y. 



Declines the Governorship 

Deepwells, St. James, L. I., 

September 25, 1910. 

Dear Mr. Creelman: Your note, with Mr. Watter- 
son's, is at hand. Mr. Dix and Mr. Mack have been here 
and I have told them finally and positively that I am not a 
candidate for Governor, and cannot be made a candidate. 
I do not intend to abandon the City. 

They say that it seems certain that the convention will 
nominate me, even though I am not a candidate. That 
does not seem probable, and I hope it does not occur. 

Although my mind is made up, I do not perceive any 
moral question in the case. I am under no obhgation 
whatever to remain as Mayor. I certainly had no such 
compact with those who opposed me and voted against 
me; it takes tw^o sides to make a compact; nor had I any 
with those who nominated and elected me; and if I had, 
they would have a right to release me. 

As for myself or my political future, I shall not con- 
sider that at all. Mr. Watterson is in error in supposing 
that I have the Presidency in my mind. Never! And it 
is too late for me to begin shaping my course for any ambi- 
tious purpose. 

And when a man has gone down into the Valley of the 
Shadow, and looked the spectre Death in the face, and said 

.32 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

to it, " I am ready," nothing in this world looks very large 
to him, as I can assure vou. 

You will have a hard time reading this letter, as my 
shoulder and collarbone are still disabled, owing to the 
injured neck muscles which support them. 

James Creelman, Esq. 



Declines the Governorship 

St. James, September 26, 1910. 

Dear Mr. Creelman : I am this day writing a letter to 
Chairman Dix, stating that I am not a candidate for 
nomination for Governor, and refuse to become such. I 
do this to remove all doubt on the subject which may have 
arisen by reason of irresponsible statements which I am 
informed are being circulated. No utterance of mine has 
put the matter in doubt. Some have said to me that the 
convention may nominate me although I am not a candi- 
date. It seems to me that it might appear vain or egotis- 
tical for me to assume in my letter to Mr. Dix that that 
extraordinary thing might happen. I therefore write this 
supplemental letter to you to take to Rochester and show 
there so as to prevent my nomination if it should appear to 
be imminent. Make it plain that if nominated I would 
decline to accept. I could not abandon to their fate the 
splendid men whom I have appointed to office, and who are 
working so hard for good government, nor could I abandon 
the people of the City of New York after so short a service. 
You may make this letter public in advance of going to 
Rochester if in your judgment you think the situation 
calls for it. But do not do so unless it be plainly necessary. 
Every honest man will understand me. 

James Creelman, Esq. 



33 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Declines the Governor ship 

St. James, Sept. 26, 1910. 

Dear Sir: I have further considered the matter as 
you requested when you called on me here with Mr. Mack 
last Wednesday, but can only reiterate to you that I am 
not a candidate for nomination for Governor. This must 
have been well known all along, for I have written it to 
many people during the last six months. I am not in- 
fluenced in my course by assertions made here and there 
that I made an agreement or compact during the Mayor- 
alty campaign to serve out the four years if elected. These 
false assertions are made by persons who opposed me and 
voted against me, and would do so again. I made no such 
agreement. I certainly did not make it with those who 
opposed me and voted against me. I could have had no 
compact with them. It takes two sides to make a compact. 
Nor did I make it with those who nominated and sup- 
ported me. They did not ask for it. I did say of my 
own motion and at the request of no one that I purposed 
to devote the next four years to the service of the City. 
But this only started a hue and cry against me that I 
should make a pledge or compact to that effect, which I 
refused to do. And if I had made a pledge, that could 
not prevent the voters from electing me to some other 
office. 

I am well aware, as has been pointed out to me, that 
there are some large things which a Governor could readily 
do for the City of New Y^ork, by oversight and legitimate 
interference, M^hich the Mayor of that city cannot do with- 
out much time and difficulty, if at all. Among them I may 
mention the planning and construction of a comprehensive 
system of subways, with a single fare over tlie whole 
system, which, in the discordancy or dualty of govern- 
ment, or both, now existing in that city, is a difficult and 
protracted matter. But nevertheless my wish to remain 
as Mayor is such that I do not become a candidate for 
nomination for Governor. May I add that as matter of 

34 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Tact the office of jNIayor of the City of New York, con- 
sidering the power and the constant occasion for the exer- 
cise of the highest functions of free government lodged in 
it, is second to no office in this country save one. 

Many tell me and write me that in taking this course 
I give up my future. But I shall not take myself or my 
future into consideration. None of us has a future, but 
only the present. And if I thought I had a future, I 
sliould be content to entrust it to the people of the City of 
New York. 

I trust that the convention will nominate some one who 
is not a mere dealer in the political commonplaces and 
jingles of the last 25 or 50 years, but who has kept pace 
and grown with the times, and whose absorbing purpose 
^vill be to make the government of the State, in all its 
branches, general and local, intelligent, honest and decent, 
and to lift it up and make it an object lesson to the whole 
nation. If to do this he has to be more or less meddlesome, 
we will all forgive such meddlesomeness, if kept fairly 
within the law. 

Jolm A. Dix, Esq., 

Chairman, etc. 

yi Morning Prayer 

November 3, 1910. 

Dear Sir: It might be a good thing for you to stop 
putting out false statements, even though you cannot get 
your campaign speakers to do the like. I never favored 
the nomination of Judge Keogh for Governor, nor was he 
a candidate for Governor, so far as I know. I never knew 
a dividend to be got out of false statements yet. I sup- 
pose, very naturally, that the other statements of fact in 
your published statement are equally false. Suppose you 
pray every morning for awhile for God to direct you to 
tell the truth, and see what fruits it will bear. 

Ezra P. Prentice, Esq., Chairman, 

Republican State Committee. 

35 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Cured 

November 5, 1910. 

Sir • I am glad to perceive from your letter of Novem- 
ber 4, just received, that I have already so far cured you 
of vour propensity to make false statements that you drop 
youi' forged quotation from my letter to Mr. Ridder, and 
use the correct quotation. While the lamp holds out to 
burn the vilest sinner may return. 

E. P. Prentice, Esq., 

Chairman. 

Socialism and the Red Flag 

(Extract from Message to the Board of Aldermen, February 21, 
^ 1911.) 

I have particularly made the police authorities under- 
stand that those who entertain views of government, or of 
economic or social order, different from ours, are not to be 
interfered with, or denied the right of freedom of speech 
and of assembly on that account. A propaganda by intel- 
lectual persuasion and peaceable means for changes m 
form of government or in the economic or social order is 
lawful and not to be meddled with, much less oppressed, 
by the police. The Sociahsts do not beheve in individual- 
ism, but in collectivism. In place of having the present 
condition of individual ownership of property, they would 
mass all land and chief products and the principal means, 
tools and machinery of production under the control and 
operation of the State, in order, as they claim, to bring 
about distributive justice, namely, a just division of the 
total product of industry among all those who contribute to 
produce it by their physical or mental work, after first pro- 
viding for the non-productive aged or infirm. That it 
clearly appears to the rest of us that this scheme would by 
doing away with incentives to individual exertion greatly 
reduce production, and thereby increase poverty and dis- 
ss 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

tress, is no reason for denying to those who advocate it 
rights secured to every one by our system of government. 
And that their flag is red instead of blue or yellow or 
green does not annoy or alarm intelligent people. They 
chose the color red for their emblem, not to signify that 
they favor violence or the shedding of blood, as the unin- 
telligent suppose and as actions of those in official author- 
ity often lead people to believe, but for the purpose of 
typifying the common brotherhood of all men of all nations 
through the same red blood which flows through the veins 
of all, and to the end that all war and violence shall cease. 
Let the fundamental rights of all on which free govern- 
ment rests be denied to no one. Those who want to work 
changes peaceably through the ballot box have the right to 
try to do so. They may let light in on us or we may let 
light in on them. As John Stuart Mill says, that which 
seems the height of absurdity to one generation often 
becomes the height of wisdom to the next. 



Argue Like Franklin 

March 8, 1911. 

Dear Sir: Your letter challenging me to a debate 
with you on Socialism is at hand. The mere fact that you 
make the challenge is probably proof positive that you are 
not fit for such a debate. People who want to force tilings 
down the mental throats of others do their own cause more 
harm than good. Did you ever read that part of Benjamin 
Franklin's autobiography in which he says that experience 
had taught him that the way to convince another is to 
state your case moderately and accurately, and then 
scratch your head, or shake it a little, and say that that is 
the way it seems to you, but that of course you may be 
mistaken about it; which causes your listener to receive 
what you say, and as like as not, turn about and try to con- 
vince you of it, since you are in doubt ; but if you go at him 
with a tone of positiveness and arrogance you only make an 

37 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

opponent of him. I write this to you in the hope that it 
may make you stop long enough to think that possibly you 
are not so infallible as you think you are. You compli- 
ment me because 1 know the meaning of the red flag of 
the SociaUsts, and stated it in my message to the Board of 
Aldermen. It is just possible that 1 have done more to 
make the people of New York understand the meaning of 
your flag and of Socialism than all that you have ever said 
with stridulent voice. If you wish to be a teacher, just 
read the passage I have mentioned from Franklin, and 
cool off a whole lot. 

T. N. Fall, Esq., 

Brooklj^n, N. Y. 

How To Be Happy 

March 9, 1911. 

My Dear Little Friend : I should be most glad to go 
and see you play, but you know I have so many things to 
do that I cannot go everj^where. I am glad that you are 
happy as you say. Everybody ought to be happy. It 
does no good to be any other way. When anything dis- 
couraging or annopng happens just say to yourself: 
" Well, it is all right. The next time something good will 
happen." And then you will feel bully. 

Miss Juliet Shelby, 

Manhattan. 

A Book Kexiew 

Mar. 14, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Aldcroft : I thank you for sending me the 
two volumes of Stewart Chamberlain on " The Founda- 
tions of the Nineteenth Century." It is a most remark- 
able production and Avill be read by every one who tries 
to keep up with and enlarge his mind by what I may with 
some degree of accuracy call the philosophy of history. I 

3S 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

was about starting for Albany and took the tirst volume 
with me. I read it on the train and also spent most of the 
night over it. Some parts of it fascinated me, especially 
the splendid fifth chapter on " The entrance of the Jews 
into the history of the West." The author gives Greece, 
Rome and Judea, in that order, as the nations from which 
the basis of our civilization was derived. It seems to me 
that he should have reversed the order of their enumera- 
tion, and said Judea, Rome and Greece. Outside of art 
and poetry, the influence of Greece has not been great on 
the civilization of the world. In jurisprudence and gov- 
ernment, in all that makes up a cohesive structure of 
society, her influence has been scarcely felt at all, I had 
almost said not at all, while the modern Western world 
derives the very warp and woof of its laws and systems 
of government from Rome. But when we turn to the 
Jews we cannot fail to perceive that our foundations not 
only in laws, manners and usages, but also in religion are 
set deep in their legislation and literature. This is par- 
ticularly true of the English-speaking peoples. The Jews 
have brought down to us from that borderline where fable 
scarcely ceases and history hardly begins our knowledge 
of the one true and ever-living God, which is the sum 
and substance of our religion. There are no mysteries 
in the Jewish religion. Everything is fact. The Lord 
God was the cornerstone fact, and an ever-recurring his- 
torical fact. " I am the Lord thy God, who brought thee 
out of the land of Egypt, and out of the house of bond- 
age," is only one of the thousand passages wliich attest 
this. Hence we find that the Jews were never irrevocably 
wedded to religious forms and ceremonies. They have 
constantly changed them throughout all their history, 
from age to age, and according to their environment in 
their dispersion throughout the world. But to their one 
great religious belief or fact they have remained true. 

Too much cannot be said of the splendid preface of 
Lord Redesdale. It never flags, and his Enghsh is so 
luminous that all the time it conveys even the shades of 

39 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

his true meaning. As I read along in the book itself, I 
could not help wishing that he had been the translator 
also. But that would have been a very different matter, 
for even the best translator, unless he depart into too free 
a rendering, cannot do much better than give a result re- 
sembling the reverse side of a tapestry as compared with 
the original. 

It is a striking thing that although an Englishman 
born and bred the author wrote in German, and that the 
English edition is by a translator other than himself. The 
only similar case I have in mind is that of Gibbon who 
wrote much of the draft of his colossal work in French. 
He somewhere says that he wrote in French because he 
had grown so accustomed to that language that he 
dreamed in it, and no doubt that was the case of Chamber- 
lain with German. But his mind also seems to be dis- 
tinctly German, so saturated is he with German literature 
and science; whereas the English mind of Gibbon stands 
out plain in every ornate sentence and stately passage. 
Have you observed the brilliant footnote at page 145? 

Richard B. Aldcroft, Jr., Esq., 

New York City. 

Are You Certain It Is Your Beard? 

April 12, 1911. 

Reverend and Dear Sir: Your letter informing me 
that as you walk about the city visiting the homes of your 
parishioners people apply opprobrious names to you, and 
throw empty cans and rubbish at you, and otherwise 
assault you, on account of your beard, is at hand. You 
ask me, " Is it a crime in the City of New York to wear a 
beard"? No, it is not. I wear one myself and nobody 
ever takes any notice of it. How is it they take notice of 
your beard? Have you trimmed it in some peculiar way, 
contrary to the Scriptures? For you know the Scriptui'es 
say, " Ye shall not round the corners of your heads, neither 
shalt thou mar the corners of thy beard." 

40 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Yes, if they assault you, and throw cans at you, you 
have a right to defend yourself to the last extremity ; but 
if you find it necessary I will have a detective go around 
with you for a few days until we arrest some of those who 
are wronging you. Are you certain that it is your beard 
which is the cause of the trouble ? 

Rev. Basil M. Kerbawy, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Voluntary Music at Playgrounds 

May 10, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Sullivan : I have your letter expressing the 
hope that I will again take up and consider the question of 
an appropriation to pay for music in the playgromids. 
Y^ou are right in conjecturing that I am a behever in the 
playgrounds. I would have as many of them as possible. 
I Mke to see the children play in the streets, even. They 
must play somewhere and we must bear with them. I 
fear you do not understand why I deprecate the idea of 
the City furnishing music to every little playground and 
recreation place in the city. It is my belief that the people 
who go to these places for recreation will improvise bands 
of their own if they are encouraged to do so, and even with- 
out any encouragement. All over the country there is an 
improvised band in every little locaHty that you come to, 
even into the edge of the Adirondacks. I was up in the 
Catskills and along the Hudson River yesterday and 
found a bandstand in nearly every httle settlement and 
village where volunteer bands play. Do you know of any 
reason why the plain people of this city cannot organize 
bands in the same way if we give them a chance? In the 
large recreation centers the City mr.y furnish music, but 
in the small places it seems to me that the citizens should 
improvise their own bands. I suppose some people will 
laugh at me for saying this, but I think our people can do 
it just as well as people all over the State and the United 

41 



MAY OR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

States are doing it. Of course they will never do it if we 
extend our paternalism to furnishing little bands here and 
there all over the city. I think the people can do it here 
better than in other localities, because among the foreign- 
ers here we have people of musical and artistic talent in 
greater proportion than in other locahties where they have 
good volunteer bands. I hope j^ou fully understand me, 
and that you will correct me if I am wrong. 

James E. Sullivan, Esq., 

Manhattan. 



Hollering 

May 25, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Loder : Your letter is at hand, and I thank 
you for your kind wishes. You ask me to stop the news- 
boys from " hollering " their papers. I have a lot of hard 
things to do, but I fear the job of stopping the newsboys 
from hollering would be the hardest of all. Will you help 
me? Or suppose I delegate the whole matter to you? 
Will you undertake the job? I won't delegate you just 
yet awhile, however, for I am not certain that I want to 
stop the little fellows from hollering. They do not disturb 
me any. A whole lot of people have been hollering at me 
of late, but they do not disturb me, and much less does the 
hollering of the little newsboys disturb me. The fact is I 
could sit dow^n and think and work in a boiler shop. That 
is one of the qualifications which should be prescribed for 
a Mayor of the City of New York. 

Cornelius S. Loder, Esq., 

New York City. 

The Pleasures and Profits of Walking 

(The following is an article published in The Independent, 
June 1, 1911. It is in conversational form, and was dictated.) 

I fear you are taking me too seriously as a walker. 
It is true that T have been walking for a good many years, 

42 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

but I do not pretend to be anything more than an ordinary 
trudger. During the sixteen years that 1 was a Justice of 
the Supreme Court I made it a rule to walk from five to 
seven miles a day. I did this to keep myself in health. 
1 sat in bad air in the courtroom. In the morning I walked 
a few miles, and after leaving court in the evening 1 
walked a few miles more. 

When I became Mayor I simply continued my walk- 
ing. I walk from my house to the City Hall in the morn- 
ing and back in the evening. That gives me seven miles 
a day. But I am no walker, nor am I an athlete. I walk 
for health, and also for the joy of walking. 

I have for many years done my princij)al work wlnle 
walking. As a judge I framed my decisions and opinions 
in my mind while walking. I can think best while walk- 
ing, and then I can come in and sit dov\ n and write off- 
hand the whole subject. But let me say again that I am 
no scientific walker although I take long walks. 

It is with my walking as with my being a disciple of 
Epictetus. During the campaign for the mayoralty, 
while every abuse and lie was being heaped upon me, I 
casually remarked in one of my speeches that what another 
saith of thee concerneth more him w^ho saith it than it con- 
cerneth thee, as Epictetus says. This seemed to astonish 
the whole journalistic fraternity in New Y^ork City, as 
though they had never heard of Epictetus before. My 
walking seemed to astonish them in the same way. 

I prefer to walk alone and think. I do not hurry; I 
just go along at my leisure. It is true, now and then some 
one comes alongside of me and thinks the gait is not a 
very leisurely one, but to me it is leisurely because I am 
used to it. I do not see why many or most people do not 
walk to and from their business every day. A man wrote 
me a letter that it was all very w^ll for me to do it, but 
that his business was two miles away from his house. I 
wrote him back that mine was over three. There is a feel- 
ing of independence and freedom when you are walking, 
and your blood warms up and flows freely, and your body 

43 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



becomes purified. As I wall\: over the bridge every night 
and see the cars packed with anaemic young men and 
women, some of them with cigarettes, I cannot help pity- 
ing them. Why do they not get out and walk and make 
their bodies ruddy and healthy? Some of them look out 
of the car windows, and point at me as though I was a 
curiosity because I walk. I think they are curiosities be- 
cause they ride, and injure themselves with the foul air 
of the cars. 

I used to be a horseback rider, but you have to keep 
that up or else drop it altogether, and you cannot always 
have time for it. Besides, it is a rather violent exercise. 
I do not think I know any one who has got a dividend out 
of it. Then I drove for years. Out of that I really got 
nothing. The street car I always abominated. They used 
to have stoves in them, and now they heat them by elec- 
tricity, and the air becomes foul. Some people write to 
me complaining that the cars are too cold. They ought 
to be made to walk. 

You ask me the best time for walking. The best time 
is in the sun in fall and winter, but if you cannot walk 
then, the best time is whenever you can walk. Of course, 
if you walk home at night during the long winter months 
you walk after dark. Morning walking is very refreshing. 

Y'es, the walking of men like Weston does much good 
by example. It starts other people walking. 

In the country, the best companion for a walk is a 
dog. A half dozen dogs is better yet. 

No, you do not want any book while you are walking. 
You want to think. In the country you can loiter about. 
Y'ou do not need to walk fast and should not do so. Ob- 
serve nature. When you come to a barnyard go in and see 
the pigs, and the fowl and the cows. Climb a fence now and 
then and go into the fields and look at the crops or the 
cattle. I know of no place where there is more philosophy 
than in a barnyard. You can learn much from animals. 
Within their circle they know much more than we do. 
Some of them see and hear things that we are incapable of 

44 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



seeing and hearing. Very few animals improve by age. 
A little pig a day old knows as much as his mother, and it 
is the same with a calf or a colt. 

I do not like to walk in a park. I hate the roads and 
walks in parks. I do not like winding roads. I like to 
see where I am going. Crooked roads are irksome. 

Y^ou want to know what about mountain climbing. I 
have done some of that in this country and in Switzerland, 
but I do not recommend it. The heart should not be ab- 
normally taxed. Of course, if your weight is in your favor 
you can do some climbing. I went down the other day 
and walked up ten flights to the top of the building where 
the terrible fire was, as I wanted to see the floors which 
were burned out. If you want to test your heart just walk 
up ten flights without stopping. If you can do it you are 
all right, no matter what your age is. 

Yes, I regret the falling off in bicycling. I enjoyed 
it for 3^ears and it did me the world of good. If people 
will not walk I would advise them to ride the bicycle. It 
will renew their lives. They will be so changed in a month 
that they will be astonished. 

What nation, you ask, gets the most out of walking. 
The English. They are great walkers. When I go to 
London I love to just stand and see them walking down 
into London in companies in the morning. The sight is 
inspiring to me. They Avalk in from miles around. Here 
people are afraid to walk a mile. The greatest rapid 
transit facilities in the world are right here in our Ameri- 
can cities, notwithstanding all the grumbling that is going 
on. Wherever vou are here in the city of New Y^ork you 
have a street car at your elbow. The result is that every- 
body rides and almost nobody walks. This is harmful. 
It would be a good thing if we had to walk more or less. 
In England they walk way out to places of recreation. 
Now, I do not know what else to say to you. The subject 
is summed up very easily. Cultivate the habit of walking 
and you will never give it up, and it will keep you in 
health and make you charitable and forbearing. If you 

45 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

take no exercise you become dyspeptic. Your blood gets 
thin, and you find fault with everybody, and by and by 
you hate everybody, and then you want to be mean to 
everybody. That is a terrible condition to be in. Don't you 
think so? But if you are in it just get out of it by walking 
a few miles every morning and evening. Go out and walk 
in the dark if necessary. 



Progress of Disease Prevention 

June 5, 1911. 

Dear Dr. Doty: I thank you for sending me your 
new book, " Prevention of Infectious Diseases." I did not 
lay it down until I had finished it, it interested me so much. 
The progress of disease prevention in the last century was 
great, and in the latter part of it marvelous. Modern 
sanitation has almost done away with diseases in the 
Western world which formerly ravaged mankind there. 
The most terrible of all was that known under the vague 
name of " plague." It often destroyed from one-quarter 
to one-half of the population in a few months. Cholera 
and smallpox came next in destructiveness ; and other 
diseases went on unchecked. As you point out, the dis- 
covery of the germ origin of diseases in the last century by 
Pasteur and Koch has revolutionized sanitation and disin- 
fection. Long standing rules of disinfection have become 
obsolete in the case of certain diseases. The theory of the 
communication of such diseases by bedding, rags, clothing, 
money, and through the air itself, has been exploded by 
the discovery of their germ and just how it enters the 
Imman body and infects it. The germ of cholera can only 
enter by the mouth in drink or food and is therefore easily 
guarded against by following a few simple rules of boiling 
and cooking. The germ of yellow fever can only be com- 
municated by the bite of a mosquito, and more than that, 
by the bite of only one particular variety of mosquito, 
which inhabits only a limited number of southern localities. 

46 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

It does not exist in the northern part of this country. Y^ou 
therefore do not need to hother with yellow fever subjects 
coming into this port, as you point out, except to see that 
they do not move on to a locality inhabited by the yellow 
fever mosquito. Y^ou clear up in my mind something that 
made me doubt the mosquito theory at first. The late Dr. 
Homer L. Bartlett, of Flatbush, worked in the yellow 
fever epidemic at Bay liidge when a young man in about 
1848, I think. He often spoke to me about it years later. 
The bedding of the yellow fever ship was thrown over- 
board and floated ashore, and he said that was how the 
disease w^as communicated ashore; that one or some got it 
by contact with the bedding, and others from them, and 
so on, until a large part of the community had it. When 
it was announced a few years ago that the disease could be 
communicated only by Mrs. Mosquito, of a certain variety 
which does not exist hereabouts, I kept thinking of the 
Bay Ridge epidemic, but you make it all plain. Mrs. 
Mosquito was aboard the ship also and went ashore, and 
there you are. But I am not so thoroughly convinced of 
what you say about rats carrying diseases ashore from 
ships and spreading them by their fleas. I give the benefit 
of the doubt to Brer Rat, the same as I often have to do 
in the case of some human beings who are quite as nasty 
and annoying as real rats are, and resemble them very 
much in their conduct and methods. I fear the case 
against Mr. Rat has been too much taken for granted. 

I am glad to see your lucid and useful volume so free 
from Greek nomenclature and terminology. I seldom read 
a scientific book without being confirmed in my opinion 
that the adoption of Greek roots or compounds to express 
our scientific names was a great mistake. It would be 
much better if we used Anglo-Saxon roots and compounds 
for that purpose, the same as the Germans use German 
roots and compounds. Then everyone could read an Eng- 
lish scientific book without a dictionary at his hand as 
easily as the Germans read their scientific books. The 
resuit would be a universal diffusion of scientific knowl- 

47 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

edge in the English-speaking countries as in Germany. 
As it is, it is irksome to anyone to read an Enghsh scientific 
book who has forgotten or never studied Greek. 

I read with great interest your account of your destruc- 
tion of mosquito propagation in the marshes on Staten 
Island by means of tidal drainage by ditches, for, as you 
remember, we looked over that work together. 

Dr. Alvah H. Doty, Health Officer, 

Port of New York. 



Every Citizen A Policeman 

June 7, 1911. 

Dear Sir: Your letter of June 7 is at hand. You 
ask if you could be appointed a police officer to serve mth- 
out pay, for the reason that you see " so many violations 
of the law, spitting on the bridge platforms and walks, 
rowdyism in many ways, etc.," that you would like to have 
authority to arrest the culprits. My dear sir, let me tell 
you that every citizen has full legal right to arrest anyone 
whom he sees committing any criminal offense, big or little. 
The law of England and of this country has been verj'' 
careful to confer no more right in that respect upon police- 
men and constables than it confers on every citizen. You 
have the same right to make an arrest for an offense com- 
mitted in your presence that any policeman has. But we 
cannot all be bothering with making arrests, so we employ 
a certain number of our fellow citizens for that purpose, 
and put blue clothes and brass buttons on them. But their 
clothes and their buttons add nothing whatever to their 
right to make arrests without warrant. They still have 
only the same right which the law gives to all of us. Be 
so good as to look at section 183 of the Code of Criminal 
Procedure and be convinced of your powers, and then sail 
right in as hard and as fast as you want to, being careful, 
however, only to arrest guilty persons, for otherwise your 

48 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

victims will turn around and sue you for damages for false 
arrest. Policemen have to take the same risk. 

Miner H. Paddock, Jr., Esq., 

New York City. 



A Government of Laws, Not of Men 

June 7, 1911. 

Dear Sir: I am in receipt of your letter saying that 
all clubs should be closed at 10 o'clock at night, also all 
saloons, and also that piano playing and singing should 
not be allowed at any hour of the night, especially in 
summer, when people cannot close their windows, so as to 
shut the noise out. 

I hereby authorize you to carry out all of these reforms. 
It may be that you will first have to get elected to the 
Legislature, and pass laws therefor, for you know this is 
a government of laws, and not of men, that is to say, those 
put in office may not do as they like, but may only carry 
out the laws as they are passed by the Legislature. Did 
you never hear of this before? 

E. H. Jones, Esq., 

" New York. 



Free Water Supply in Households 

June 13, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Harding: Your favor of June 12 is at 
hand. I entirely agree wdth you in regard to putting water 
meters in dwellings. I do not believe in charging for 
water according to meter for domestic purposes, or for use 
in dwellings or tenements. I examined the matter very 
carefully over a year ago and came to that conclusion, and 
I see no reason to depart from it. If heads of houses had 
to pay for water according to meter, they would be uneasy 
every time their wives and children took baths, for such is 

49 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

human nature. The result would be discomfort and un- 
cleanliness. Every one would hesitate to take a bath, 
sooner than add to the household expense. This would be 
particularly so among the poor and people of moderate 
means. I believe in getting an inexhaustible source of 
water supply, and letting every one use all the water he or 
she wants for washing and bathing and domestic purposes. 
That is necessary to keep the community clean and in a 
good sanitary condition. Tell your Association to stick 
to this. 

Harold H. Harding, Esq., 

New York City. 



The Art of Living Long 

June 16, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Butler : I thank you very much for sending 
me your edition of Cornaro's " The Art of Living Long." 
I read extracts from it several years ago in a little book of 
that other long-lived man and physician. Dr. Thompson, 
of England, who died in the last century at a great age, 
but was born in the preceding century. On receipt of your 
book I looked through my library but was unable to find 
Dr. Thompson's book. 

There is abroad an exaggerated notion of Cornaro's 
way of living. He was abstemious of food, but not to the 
exaggerated extent which we often find stated. He did 
not starve himself; he would not have reached the great 
age of 102 if he had done so. He drilled himself to the 
liabit of eating just enough and no more. I think most 
any of us could get along with what lie ate. He tells us 
that he limited himself to fourteen ounces of wine a day. 
There is a great deal of nourishment in that amount of 
wine. Very few of us drink any wine. And then after 
telling how abstemious he was he makes this very naive 
statement : " First, bread; then bread, soup or light broth, 
with an egg, or some other nice little dish of this kind; of 

50 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

meats, I eat veal, kid and mutton; I eat fowls of all kinds, 
as well as partridges, and birds like the thrush. I also 
partake of such salt-water fish as the goldney and the like ; 
and among the various fresh-water kinds the pike and 
others." Do you not think that you and I could get along 
pretty well on this same diet? However, the essays of this 
venerable Italian of the Sixteenth Century, on how to eat 
and how to live, are of great interest and value, and I hope 
you may succeed in getting them generally read, for they 
would make abstemiousness and the simple life more 
general than they now are, with the result of making life 
happier and longer. 

William F. Butler, Esq., 

Milwaukee, Wis. 



Night Courts Unnecessary 

June 20, 1911. 

I am one of those who have doubted that we needed 
any nioht court at all. About all that they exist for is to 
let people go who should not have been arrested at all. 
When I attended a session of the night court sixty per 
cent of those brought in had to be discharged on the spot 
for the reason that they should not have been arrested at 
all. They were arrested for all sorts of frivolous and 
ridiculous reasons. I am trying to stop that kind of 
arrests by the police and if I succeed there will not be 
much doing in the night court. As for the criminal classes, 
I doubt if we ought to be in any gi-eat hurry to discharge 
them during the night. It is time enough to arraign them 
in the morning. 

On Cruelty to Horses 

July 10, 1911. 

Sir : The other night when we rode up and down the 
territory where the experiment of the fixed post is being 

51 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

tried, we were both surprised at the number of dead horses 
in the street. I have been watching the horses ever since, 
and I see many of them overloaded in the most cruel 
manner. Please take the matter in hand and have the 
police instructed to interfere in all cases where horses are 
overloaded, and if necessary make arrests. 

Rhinelander Waldo, Esq., 

Commissioner of Police. 



On Special Policemen 

July 26, 1911. 

Sir: I beg to enclose to you a letter from Major 
General Grant calling my attention to the fact that two 
privates of the United States Army were excluded from 
the Sulzer Dancing Pavilion at Coney Island on July 4. 
Will you be so good as to make a careful examination of 
this matter, and report to me all of the particulars. 

I note that General Grant says in his letter that 
Special Policeman G. Clark, in accordance with the in- 
structions of the proprietor, excluded the soldiers. I had 
supposed that all these special policemen, hired out by the 
PoHce Department to private individuals to do their bid- 
ding, and who often commit the grossest outrages at the 
command of their employers, had been called in and their 
badges taken from them. If any have been allowed to 
remain through oversight, please have them removed at 
once. It is contrary to the first principles of government 
to put public officers in the employ of private individuals, 
to be paid by thtm, and directed in the performance of 
their duty by them. If they do not do what these private 
employers tell them to do, then they are discharged. The 
result is that many wrongs are perpetrated by these special 
officers at the command of the private individuals who 
employ them. Such a condition is intolerable. Let private 
individuals and corporations hire their own watchmen and 

52 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

servants as best they can. We should not create poKce- 
men to be hired out to them and put under their orders. 

Rhinelander Waldo, Esq., 

Commissioner of Police. 



On Special Policemen 

July 27, 1911. 

Sir: The objection to special policemen is to allow 
them to be in the employ and pay of private individuals. 
It is contrary to the first principles of government to 
allow such a thing. No public officer should be in the 
employ and pay and subject to the orders of any private 
individual or corporation. To put him in such a position 
is to make it inevitable that he will obey the orders of his 
employer instead of acting as a sworn public officer from 
the standpoint of his public duty and judgment only, as 
all public officers should do. Hov/ can he do otherwise 
than obey his employer when he may refuse to pay him 
and discharge him unless he obeys his orders. 

The case of the public service corporations who carry 
passengers may be different. They perform a public 
function, and the City may therefore need to police them 
to a certain extent to protect passengers. Will you be 
so good as to prepare me a report on that subject. Let 
me know the extent to which we police them now, and 
how it is done, and how in your judgment it should be 
continued, if it is to be continued. It may be proper to 
police them by special policemen whose salaries are paid 
by them; but in that case we should not make special 
policemen of any one or every one presented by these cor- 
porations, but should, on the contrary, constitute a special 
squad of special policemen and assign them for that kind 
of duty under direction and control of a discreet officer, 
and change them from time to time, so as to do away with 
the possibility of the companies making them presents in 
order to induce them to do things which they should not 

53 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

do, as in the case of strikes, and the hke. And, also, the 
companies should deposit a fund with the Police Com- 
missioner in advance for the payment of their salaries. 
They should not be dependent on the companies for pay- 
ment, but on the City. 

I suppose you are well aware that when these special 
officers conmiit an unlawful arrest or battery and their 
employers are sued for it, the courts decide that the em- 
ployers are not liable, on the ground that such special 
officers being pubhc officers are presumed to act from 
the standpoint of their public duty, and not under the 
orders of their employers. In order to recover against 
the employer it is necessary to prove that he ordered the 
unlawful thing to be done, whereas, in the case of his regu- 
lar emi^loyees he is liable for their unlawful acts, as a rule, 
whether he directed them or not. By having these special 
officers, employers shirk such liability. 

You also laiow the trouble I had with these special 
officers in the cloak makers' strike, the express companies' 
strike, and other strikes. The special officers in the em- 
ploy of employers in strike disputes coimnit all sorts of 
unlawful acts. In the cloak makers' strike the employees 
came to me and asked me to have a list of their men desig- 
nated as special officers for them, as they had as much 
right to special officers as the other side had. I had to 
admit that they had as much right to them as the em- 
ployers had, and I therefore allowed neither side to have 
them, but had the regular police preserve order. This 
proved to be satisfactory to both sides in every strike, and 
it is the only lawful way. 

Rhinelander Waldo, Esq., 

Commissioner of Police. 

Boys in Streets 

August 10, 1911. 

Dear Madam : Your favor complaining of boys play- 
ing in the streets is at hand. You ask if a law could not 

54 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

be passed prohibiting boys playing in the streets, saying 
that it "would be a blessing to humanity." I might ask 
you whether if such a law were passed you think it could 
be enforced? Our boys have a hard time to get along in 
the crowded districts of the city. They must play some- 
where. I went around to the recreation piers the other 
night and found great numbers of them there, but they 
cannot all go there. We must bear with them. Have you 
any boys ? If you had do you think you could keep them 
off the streets? 

Mrs. Jessie F. Stearns, 

New York Citv. 



Street Ball Playing 

August 10, 1911. 

Dear Boys: It is too bad that you cannot play ball 
somewhere in peace. Of course the police cannot always 
let you play on the street, but now and then they can wink 
so hard with both eyes as not to see you when you are 
doing no harm to passersby and the street is not crowded. 
In the parks you may only play on the places assigned 
to baseball playing. The keepers will not chase you out 
unless you play where baseball is not permitted. I wish 
we had the grounds for you all to play, but unfortunately 
we have not. So, boys, do the best you can, and I will 
help you a little now and then if you send me word. 

Masters LeGrande Sampson, William E. 
Westbrooke, Samuel C. Ward, Jr., 
Joseph Carey and Raymond Luetke, 

New York City. 

A Book Excluded from the Library 

August 14, 1911. 

Dear Miss Holland: On your complaint that Mr. 
George H. Brennan's novel " Anna Malleen " was un- 

55 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

justly discriminated against by the trustees of the Pubhc 
Library, by their refusal to admit it into the library for 
circulation, I looked it through last night, after trying 
hard to read it consecutively. I am satisfied that the 
notion of the author that his book was excluded on moral 
grounds is erroneous. It is quite harmless, but very 
stupid. It must have been rejected on that ground. I 
cannot help calling to mind that scene of Cervantes in 
which he pictures the priest, the barber and the niece sit- 
ting in judgment on the books of Don Quixote's library, 
sparing a few, but committing all the others to the flames, 
and especially the stupid ones. If this book had been 
there I am certain it would not have escaped the flames. 

Miss Mildred Holland, 

New York City. 



To a Clerk Who Objected to Working Overtime 

December 6, 1911. 

Sir: If I were you I would do everything I was 
asked to do. That is the way to get on in life. Did you 
ever hear it said that he who takes care to do no more 
than he is paid for will never be paid for more than he 
does? Go right in and do everything from sunrise to 
sunset and j'^ou will go right up all the time. What do 
you think of that? 

Mr. Joseph Donahue, 

New York City. 



Roof Playgrounds 

August 29, 1911. 

My Dear Boys: Your several letters informing me 
that you won the ball game on the roof playground of 

56 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



Public School 188 last Thursday night, and reminding me 
of my promise to send a set of balls and gloves to the 
winners are at hand. I note that one of your letters seems 
to betray doubt that I will keep my word. 1 do not 
blame the writer for his doubts, considering the many ill 
things which are being publicly said of me. They may 
well create doubts even in the minds of the boys. I am 
sending you a box of twelve balls, and also a set of mitts 
and gloves. I want to tell you how much I enjoyed my 
visit to the roof playgrounds of the public schools last 
Thursday night. I never saw finer dancing by girls. I 
hope that the boys will be given dancing lessons next 
year. I regret that these playgrounds were closed so early 
as August 26 for lack of music. Next year we will try 
to remedy that also. The playgrounds and piers ought to 
be kept open as late in the season as possible. I also 
thank you for electing me an honorary member of your 
ball club. 

Master Benjamin Blau, 

^ Crotona Ball Club, 

New York City. 



On Making Restitution 

September 6, 1911. 

Dear Sir: Y^our letter is at hand. You state that 
some years ago you were a witness before me when I was 
a judge, and a false witness, and deceived me, so that I 
decided the case wrongly, and that you make this confes- 
sion to me because you have become a Christian and want 
forgiveness. According to my views you have to do more 
than this to be forgiven. You have to make amends. 
Mere talk does not purchase forgiveness. Where any- 
thing is stolen or got unjustly it must be refunded before 
forgiveness can be expected, if the sinner be able to refund. 
That is the way I understand it. So you had better tell 
me what the case was so that I may look it up and see 

57 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

what loss the defeated party sustained; and then you 
must restore his money to him or make good his loss. If 
this be not your view, I fear you are in error in supposing 
that you have got religion and are a Christian. 

How to Find a Wife 

September 15, 1911. 

Dear Sir: Your letter asking me to find a wife for 
you is at hand. How is this? Why do you send way up 
here to New York for a wife? Do you not know the 
proverb that he who goes far from home for a wife is apt 
to be fooled? And then again how could I reconunend 
any good girl here to you? You may not be so attractive 
as you think you are. From my way of thinking most 
any woman a man happens to meet is altogether too good 
for him. But it seems you are unable to find a wife among 
all the women of your locaHty. Do j^ou not think that 
you are altogether too particular? I am very certain that 
there are many there who would make good wives. 

William W. Mummey, Esq., 

Arkansas City, Kans. 

The " Wink " 'Letter to a Little Girl 

September 15, 1911. 

Dear Miss Roth: I have received your letter of Sep- 
tember 11, telling me that you and the little girls in your 
neighborhood have no place to play after school, and that 
wherever you go to play you are chased. I am very sorry 
about it, and I will see if I can do something for you. 
Some people think you ought to stay in the house all the 
time. But you must go out, and you must play some- 
where, and we must let you play in the streets until there 
is some other place provided. Do you know I receive 
letters daily from men and women who hate to see the 
children play in the streets at all. But on inquiry I always 

58 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

find out that they are people who have no children of 
their own. You say you want to skate on roller skates. 
JNIaybe I can get the police up that way to wink so hard 
with both eyes that they won't see you when you go by 
on your roller skates. But be careful not to run into any- 
body or bump into an automobile. But there are very few 
accidents of that kind. When one such accident happens 
a lot of people write to me as though it were the rule 
instead of the exception. 

Miss Helen Roth. 



On Marriage Fees 

November 3, 1911. 

Dear j\Ir. Cron: You are mistaken in thinking that 
anyone in the City Clerk's ofiice or in the Marriage 
Bureau extorted a marriage fee from you. The trouble 
is that many of you people go to the City Cierlv's office for 
a license and then desire to get someone to marry you there 
or in a room nearb}^ If you would go away from the 
City Kail to your own clergyman or to some magistrate 
all this trouble would be avoided. It is an old custom for 
those who perform the ceremony of marriage to expect a 
fee, and I know of no way of doing away with that custom. 
Indeed, most men who marry a girl want to pay a fee to 
the person who performs the marriage ceremony. If he 
wants to have it done for nothing he should go away to 
some minister or magistrate who does not expect a fee. 
Men now come to the City Hall and instead of going 
away with their license go into another room and send for 
an alderman to marry them, and then when the alderman 
intimates tliat he wants a fee they raise trouble about it 
and write to me. I wish you would all go away from the 
City Hall and get married somewhere else, and then this 
trouble would be at an end. It is beyond my power to 
prevent an alderman from expecting the usual marriage 
fee, and from giving a gentle hint that he wants it, if he 

59 



M AYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

be the sort of man that will do that sort of thing. If I 
had time I would marry 5^ou all for nothing. How would 
that go? It would evidently suit some of you, but ninety- 
nine out of every hundred would want to thrust a fee into 
my hand, for such is the good nature and generosity of 
the normal man to the man who marries him to the girl of 
his choice. 

Ralph E. Cron, Esq., 

New York City. 



Calling Out the Military 

Mov. 14, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Stanton: Your letter is in error in some 
particulars. The men who quit work in the Street Clean- 
ing Department are not two-thirds non-citizens as you 
state. On the contrary, they are all citizens either by 
birth or naturalization. So your advice to deport them 
has no foundation. Nor do I intend to call out the mili- 
tary. This is not a government of military force. It is 
a free goverimient. We call out the military only in case 
of dire necessity, that is to say, when the regular civil 
authorities are unable to put down tumult. Do you not 
understand this? I do not like to have people write me 
to call out the militia and shoot people down. A Mayor 
of New York would have to forget himself to do a thing 
like that except in the last extremity. I hope the time is 
far distant when it will be necessary to call out troops to 
shoot any one down. Ours is a government of law, and 
the military power has to keep its hands off until the 
regular agencies of civil government are unable to pre- 
serve order. 

Willard G. Stanton, Esq., 

Manhattan. 

60 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPE ECHES 

Propagating Vices in Prisons 

November 22, 1911. 

Sir: Your favor of November 20th informing me in 
full of the great necessity of a new reformatory, and a 
new workhouse with a single cell for each inmate is at 
hand. The account you give of an average of eight men 
to each cell, and of four women to each cell, and the 
immoralities which inevitably result therefrom, is most 
distressing. We are arresting and convicting people for 
certain vices not very easy to mention by name, and at 
the same time by confining more than one person in each 
cell in our penal institutions we are encouraging and 
propagating these very same vices. You also point out 
that in place of there being an air space or ration of 400 
cubic feet to each person, as the laws of modern hygiene 
require, there is a space or ration of only 226 cubic feet. 
It is not to be wondered at that all the prison congresses, 
international, national and state, have through their visit- 
ing committees condemned these things as uncivilized. No 
doubt the funds should be appropriated forthwith to 
remedy these evils, although the amount necessary may 
be millions. The trouble has been for the last few years, 
and is now, a disposition in the government of the city 
to cut down all expenses to the last dollar, and to omit 
necessary appropriations entirely, especially in the case 
of expenditures chargeable to corporate stock, in order to 
have funds or borrowing credit to build subways. Some 
of us have tried to remove this condition by getting the 
offer of operating companies to put up part or all of the 
money necessary for subway construction accepted by the 
city. As you are aware one company offered to put up 
about $100,000,000 for that purpose, but in one way or 
another its offer was not adopted but frittered away. I 
am quite certain the Comptroller is alive to this matter, 
and I trust that the subways will in the end be financed 
by private capital to an extent which will leave us a cor- 
porate stock margin adequate for the things which you 

61 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

mention, and for hospitals, court houses, bridge ap- 
proaches, parks and jjlaygrounds, and many other things 
which I need not mention and which are now held up. The 
notion was propagated in the community by false state- 
ments daily repeated in certain newspapers, that if the 
operating companies put money into subway construction 
they would own the subways, whereas the subway statute 
is such that only the city can build and own subways, who- 
ever puts up the capital, and the operating companies can- 
not get a lease or franchise one day longer by putting up 
capital for subway construction. Whether the city puts 
up the capital or the companies put up the capital the 
franchise they get is the very same. I have always deemed 
it lamentable that one or two newspaper proprietors 
should have been able by the persistency of their false 
statements to propagate a contrary notion even among 
intelligent people. 

P. A. Whitney, Esq., 

Commissioner of Correction, 

New York City. 



Advising Jews to he Farmers 

November 27, 1911. 

Sir : I regret that I am not able to be present at your 
meeting. Its object is to encourage the Jews to become 
farmers instead of crowding together in cities. We have 
here in this city a large number of Jews, 10,000 it may be, 
engaged in peddling, principally from pushcarts. It 
would be a great blessing to them if they could be removed 
from the city to farms. They certainly could not have 
a harder time to make a living as farmers than they have 
now. On the contrary they would make good livings as 
farmers. There is no reason why the Jews should not 
be farmers. Originally and for thousands of years, the 
Jewish race was given almost exclusively to agriculture. 
Everything should be done to induce the Jews to return to 

62 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SrEEC HES 

agriculture. The reasons why they ceased to be agricul- 
turists in the Christian world are very well loiown. I need 
not repeat them here. I trust your meeting will be of 
great benefit. 

Joseph W. Pincus, Esq., 

New York City. 



Cato as a Farmer 

November 28, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Hubbell : I spent last evening most pleas- 
antly reading Fairfax Harrison's translation of the elder 
Cato's treatise on farming Avhich you sent me. It is 
delightful and gave me complete mental relaxation. The 
two thousand years which have passed since it was written 
have not detracted either from its charm or its usefulness. 
He even tells how to smoke and cure hams in substantiallv 
the way which has been used ever since. They knew as 
much about seed selection then as we know now. When 
I was a boy we used to use seed from our own crops, and 
the result was that the potatoes and corn grew smaller and 
smaller year after year, and for a long time we did not 
know what was the matter. When we brought in new 
seeds, especially from a more northern section, we had 
abundant proof of what the trouble was. His advice con- 
cerning manuring the land is perfect. We speak now of 
the soil being sour. Cato saj^s that by taking a section of 
soil from the ground and pouring water through it and 
then tasting the water we can ascertain whether the soil is 
sour. If it be sour he says the water will pucker your 
mouth. His advice about buying a farm is very shrewd. 
A man from the city will go and buy a farm without look- 
ing to see whether there be a drop of water on it. Old 
Cato was too sharp for that. Nothing is more important 
on a farm than water. The suggestion that it is better 
to buy a farm in an undeveloped state, and have the 

63 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

pleasure of clearing and developing it yourself, is capital. 
What he says about wine growing is useful in countries 
where wine is grown. It seems that old Cato used to have 
a good bout at wine himself occasionally. He also was 
very fond of cabbages. I am not certain whether his state- 
ment that if you have drunk too much wine at dinner you 
have only to eat five cabbage leaves next morning to feel 
as though you had drunk none is correct. Suppose you 
and I try that some day and see. Y'our farm is up in the 
Berkshire Hills, while mine is down on Long Island, but 
I suppose we both raise some cabbages. 

Charles Bulkley Hubbell, Esq., 

New York City. 



Books 

December 4th, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Smith: I thank you exceedingly for the 
edition of Don Quixote which you sent me. The illustra- 
tions by Dore are grand. The translation I notice is by 
Motteux. Of the English translations I deem that by 
Jarvis the best. It is so deft and nimble. I imagine that 
it approaches the spirit of the original more nearly than 
any of the others. When a younger man I often enter- 
tained the intention of trying to learn Spanish in order 
to read Don Quixote in the original. I envy your being 
able to do so. In translating a work of imagination it is 
almost always necessary to depart from literalness in order 
to give the genius and spirit. This Jarvis does, while 
Motteux is often painfully literal. And yet his literal- 
ness brings out some things that should not be lost. For 
instance, in the account of Don Quixote's manner of liv- 
ing, and what dishes he ate each day of the week, Jarvis 
says, " an omelet on Saturdays," which is certainly com- 
mon-place enough. But Motteux gives the original 
exactly, namely, " griefs and groans on Saturdays," 
which was some kind of a mixed dish which evidently 

64 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

caused belly ache, or some sort of distress in the paunch. 
But cases Hke that are few, and the nimble and light 
touches of Jarvis which let you right into the spirit of the 
narrative are often departures from the literal rendering 
of the original. At best a translation of a work of imag- 
ination bears about the same resemblance to the original 
as the reverse side of a tapestry to the true side. That 
is whj^ I am sorry I do not understand Spanish as you do. 
If I did we could continue that discussion of the writings 
of Cervantes which we commenced on the train up from 
Richmond. 

Let me cite a passage or two to show how much more 
attractive the translation of Jarvis is. After Don Quixote 
is knocked down by the sail of the wind-mill, Sancho 
Panza comes galloping up on Dapple and says, according 
to Motteux: " Mercy on me, did not I give your Worship 
fair warning? Did not I tell you they were wind-mills, 
and that nobody could think otherwise unless he also had 
^vind-mills in his head?" But Jarvis more nimbly says: 
" God save us, quoth Sancho Panza, did not I warn you 
to have a care of what you did, for that they were nothing 
but wind-mills, and nobody could mistake them but one 
that had the like in his head." And again, speaking of 
the company at Antonio's house who were entertaining 
Don Quixote, Motteux says : " Among others were two 
ladies of an airy and waggish disposition." Contrast this 
with the way Jarvis puts it: " Among the ladies there 
were two of an arch and jocose disposition." But I must 
not multiply these instances except to quote the rendering 
of a proverb. Motteux makes Don Quixote say to 
Sancho: " I have always heard it said that to do a kind- 
ness to clowns is like throwing water into the sea." Jarvis 
has it that " to do good to the vulgar is to throw water into 
the sea." 

Cervantes and Shakespeare died on the same day — 
or rather one died ten days later than the other according 
to the modern reckoning of time, but I do not remember 
which. But I find they made use of the same expression, 

65 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Sancho Panza is made to say, " There is some difference 
between a hawk and a handsaw." Shakespeare sa's in 
Hamlet, " I know a hawk from a handsaw." 

Y^ears ago I copied every proverb, or philosophical or 
vnse saying there is in Don Quixote. I think that an equal 
number of good ones is not found in any other book except 
the Bible. I am half tempted to quote a few to you and 
let you compare them with the original. " Who but a 
madman would mind what a madman says," is one. " Dili- 
gence is the mother of good fortune," is another. And 
this: "It is pleasant to govern though ic be but a flock of 
sheep." And this: " Some people go out for wool and 
come home shorn." And this: "Letters without virtue 
are pearls upon a dunghill." And this : " Though habit 
and example do much, good sense is the foundation of 
good language." And this: "When they give you a 
heifer be ready with the rope." And this of the same mean- 
ing: " When good fortune knocks, make haste to let her 
in." And some or all of those elected to office might well 
say with Sancho Panza when his old clothes were being 
taken off and he was being dressed up in his official gar- 
ments when he was entering upon the government of his 
island: " Clothe me as you will, I shall be Sancho Panza 
still." And it were well if they could all say, as Sancho 
did when he gave up his governorship and they had 
stripped him of his official garments to reclothe him with 
his old ones : " Naked came I into this government and 
naked come I out of it." And let me wind up with this 
one which the ladies might take offense at: " Between the 
yea and the nay of a woman I would not undertake to 
thrust the point of a needle." 

And while I am at it, and since we went into this book 
talk on the train at all, I will set down for you the books 
which I think have had the largest effect on my life. I 
will give them in the order in which I think I was affected 
by them: 

The Bible, 

Euchd, 

06 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Shakespeare, 

Hume's History of England (especially the notes) , 

Homer, 

Milton, 

Cervantes (Don Quixote), 

Rabelais, 

Gil Bias, 

Franklin's Autobiography and letters, 

Plutarch's Lives, 

The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, 

Gibbon's Dechne and Fall of the Roman Empire, 

Adam Smith's Wealth of Nations, 

Bacon's Works. 

I have left out of this list those works on what for want 
of a better name I may call the philosophy of history. I 
have derived immense satisfaction and, I hope, much 
profit, from them. And no doubt I have omitted some 
books I would mention if I took the time. 

R. A. C. Smith, Esq., 

New York City. 



Grand Jurors 

December 6, 1911. 

Dear Sirs : On consideration I do not wish to recom- 
mend that the Board of Aldermen give you extra pay. 
Men fit to serve on Grand Juries ought to be willing to do 
it for the honor of it. Grand Jurors have a high function 
to perform, and ought to be men who know that they are 
not to be led bv the nose bv the District Attorney, the 
Judge, or any one else. 

Messrs. Henry W. Smith, 
John R. Vvaiite, 
Robert F. Craig, 

Brooklyn, X. Y. 

67 



MA YOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Arresting Boys 

August 29, 1911. 

Sir: William Eagen, an 18 year old boy, residing 
with his parents at 53, Fourth Avenue, Brooklyn, com- 
plains to me that Detective Barry arrested him m the 
street, locked him up in the station house over night on 
the charge of vagrancy, and the next morning when the 
case was called in court Detective Barry made no charge 
against him. Please make a most careful examination 
into this case. It will never do to allow boys to be arrested 
and locked up over night for no offense. Please let me 
have a full report of the matter. 

Rhinelander Waldo, Esq., 

Commissioner of Police. 

A False Police Report on a Boy's Arrest 

December 19, 1911. 

Sir: Some months ago I wrote to you of the case of 
the eighteen year old boy William Eagen, who called upon 
me in person and made his complaint. He has been well 
brought up, and has always hved at home with his parents 
at 53, 4th Avenue, Brooklyn. Detective Barry arrested 
him in the street near his home on August 24th last with- 
out a warrant. He had never before been arrested or ac- 
cused of any offense. He was taken to the station house 
and locked up over night in a ceil. The next morning the 
said officer arraigned him before a magistrate, and made 
a written complaint on oath that he was a vagrant, i. e., a 
person without a home, wandering about, and with no 
means of support. The officer knew that this was untrue. 
The boy lived at home and worked daily with his father 
who is janitor of 17 buildings. When the case was called 
on August 28th for a hearing, the officer stated that he 
could not prove the charge, and the boy was discharged. 
In my letter to you I asked for a full report of the matter. 
Later you sent to me the report of Inspector Hughes, 
chief of the detective bureau, concurred in by the Second 

68 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTP^R S AND SPEECHES 

Deputy Police Commissioner. That rei^ort disclosed that 
the real reason for the boy's arrest was that a burglary of 
the apartments of C. W. Daniels, at 449, State Street, 
Brooklyn, had been committed, and that the boy was 
" suspected " of having committed the same. The things 
stolen were a watch, engraved with Mr. Daniels' name, a 
locket, studded with diamonds, and engraved in the same 
way, and a double chain and fob. The reason for such 
suspicion given in the said report was that the father of 
the boy was janitor of the building in which Mr. Daniels 
had his apartments, that the bulldog did not arouse Mr. 
Daniels when the burglar entered, that therefore the burg- 
lary was committed by some one on good terms with the 
bulldog, and that therefore the burglar was probably 
young Eagen. Such was the farfetched if not ridiculous 
theory. The report went on to state that after being ar- 
rested and on his way to the station house young Eagen 
told the officers who had him in charge that the locket 
lost by Mr. Daniels contained 17 diamonds, that it had 
been broken up, and that it was useless to look for it. 
The report also states that while young Eagen was locked 
up in the cell another officer heard him state to a prisoner 
in an adjoining cell, v/lio had been arrested on suspicion 
of the same offense, " I think they have got it on us," to 
which the other prisoner responded, " Shut up, some one 
might be listening." The name of this other prisoner is 
Grant, hereinafter mentioned. To this report was at- 
tached a letter of the Second Deputy Commissioner to 
you stating that in his opinion the action of the officer 
who made the arrest and false charge of vagrancy was 
justifiable. I felt constrained to write to you that his con- 
duct Avas unjustifiable. The boy was not a vagrant, and 
the charge against him was false. The alleged confessions 
were stated to have taken place after the arrest, and were 
not revealed to the magistrate at all. I also expressed the 
view that the so-called evidence given in the report that 
the boy had coimnitted the burglary was no evidence, and 
that the alleged confessions stated in the report were 

(59 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

trumped up after the boy's discharge, and after I had 
called for a report, for the purpose of trying to justify 
the arrest. Nothing further was done at that time, how- 
ever, as the said chief of the detective bureau said that the 
investigation was still going on and that it was expected 
that sufficient evidence would be obtained against the boy. 
But instead of any evidence being obtained against him, 
one Alexander Moore has since been arrested, indicted 
and convicted of the burglary and is now serving a term 
in State's Prison therefor, as I have learned. Pawn tickets 
for the stolen articles were fomid in his pockets. The 
stolen articles were all obtained in the pawn shop. The 
diamonds had not been taken out of the locket. In a 
word, th.e whole report has been proven to be false in every 
substantial particular. The statement that this boy made 
anything in the nature of a confession is now knov/n to be 
entirely false, as he knew nothing at all about the matter. 
The report also states that when the boy was discharged 
by the magistrate his mother who was present exclaimed : 
" I am going to write to Mayor Gaynor and give you fel- 
lows the same dose that Duffy gave the officers in his 
case " — alluding to young Duffy who was arrested time 
after time by the police and locked up, and his picture put 
in the Rogues' Gallery, for no offense whatever. I have 
sufficiently ascertained that she had not up to that time 
ever heard of the Duffv case, and therefore could not have 
made such a remark. Also she is not a woman who would 
express herself in that manner. 

The case calls for discipline of the officers engaged in 
it. It is also necessary that this matter be made pubHc 
so that this boy may be fully vindicated instead of being- 
injured for life. It will never do for the police to treat 
boys in this way. I should also mention that another 
young fellow named Henry Grant was arrested on sus- 
picion for the same crime. The chief reason for his ar- 
rest seems to have been that when a boy he had served a 
term in the Elmira Reformatory. He was discharged as 
reformed. The police should l^e very careful about ar- 

70 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

resting boys who have served a term in a reformatory. 
To follow them up and arrest them on sight, on the 
slightest suspicion, or on no suspicion, as is often the case, 
after they come out, and even follow them to the places 
where they are employed, and procure their discharge, is 
to leave no course open to them except to become habitual 
criminals. This boy Grant was employed as a chauffeur. 
I understand that he lost his place because of his arrest. 
I trust that this vindication of him will suffice to enable 
him to get other work to do. The police must be made to 
understand that they cannot arrest and lock people up as 
they like, but that they must keep within the law. The 
only waj^ to enforce the law is the way prescribed by law. 
That which cannot be done lawfully must not be done at 
all by the police or any other public officials from the Pres- 
ident of the United States down. This is a government 
of laws and not of men. 

Rhinelander Waldo, Esq., 

Commissioner of Police. 

Coffee Drinking 

December 20, 1911. 

Dear Mr. Gilmore: I thank you very much for the 
package of coffee which you sent to my house. It will 
do me much good. I did not begin to drink coffee until I 
was past fortj^, and I therefore get all the effects of it, and 
very little suffices me. Before I took to drinking a httle 
diluted coffee I drank cold water for breakfast, dinner 
and supper. 

William G. Gilmore, Esq., 

New York City. 

" Happy New Year " 

December 31, 1911. 

There is less misery in this world than some miserable 
people think. Misery seems to be happiness to some peo- 

71 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

pie. If they happen to be without some mental worry or 
misery they think they are sick. Every one is happy in 
some way. The predominant feeling in the world is one 
of happiness. We often imagine that if this or that hap- 
pened to us, or if we met with some accident, or were sick, 
we would not be happy. But the one who has lost a leg 
or an arm, or even his voice, or his hearing, or his eyesight, 
is generally happy. 

And this is the happy season of the year. 

Nothing makes us so happy as to read the account in 
Luke's Gospel of the birth of Jesus. It thrills us. The 
picture of the Child in the manger with the cattle lookmg 
on never leaves the mind from childhood up. 

We who were children in the country saw the cow 
and the ox and the manger and Jesus and all. We lived 
with the cattle and loved them. That Jesus was born 
among them made us feel that He was really one of us. 
It is the central point of democracy in the world. 

Some are fond of picturing infants born in castles 
and with great surroundings. But this picture of Jesus 
born among the cattle in a manger is the one which reaches 
every human heart, high and low. Humanity everywhere 
responds to it. 

And in the midst of this elation of soul over the birth 
of Jesus comes the beginning of the new year. We are 
looking on the bright side of everything, and are able to 
begin the new year well. 

We are filled with good intentions and are ready to 
make promises for our future conduct. But we have to 
keep renewing these promises. In fact we have to renew 
them every morning in order to accomplish much. 

But if Ave start with a strong impulse we are likely to 

keep it up. 

Christmas and New Year's were great days in the 
country when I was a boy. The greeting was " Merry 
Christmas and Happy New Year " everywhere. It was 
nothing but good will to everybody. 

And then later on came Easter. The birth of Jesus 

72 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

and the day of His Resurrection are the happiest days in 
the year. The heart is filled with joy in spite of one's 
self. With many Easter is a sort of renewed Christmas, 
and it was so when I was a boy, although there were some 
who thought very little of either Christmas or Easter. 
Where I lived the winter had hardly gone at Easter. 
But the thawing snow, the singing of the hens, the cows 
licking themselves and one another in the barnyard sun, 
the sharp crack of the bursting trees in the woods, and 
many other signs, told us that the winter was passing and 
the spring arriving. Those were great days. 

The city children and the city people have great days 
also. The point of view is different, that is all. 

And so you say next year is leap year. That tickles 
the vanity of all young fellows and men who think that 
every woman they meet is disposed to fall in love with 
them. But I do not think the women care much about 
leap year. They can propose if they want to, but, bless 
them, leap year or no leap year, they would rather have 
the fellow propose to them. 

No, I do not approve of this roystering, and I may 
almost say drunken " old year out and new year in " 
which some people celebrate here in New York. I would 
like to see it done away with. 



Pawnshops 

Jan. 4, 1912. 

Sir: I enclose to you a complaint of Marie Behrman. 
Please have the matter investigated thoroughly. 

May I also now repeat what I said to you orally some 
little time ago, that the habit of detectives telling persons 
whose property has been stolen and pawned, that they 
must pay the amount advanced on or paid for the article 
in order to get possession of it, should be done away with. 
The law is that no one is required to pay anything in order 

73 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

to get back his stolen property. Nobody can get any 
title or lien on it. The force should be warned to stop 
this practice absolutely, and a violation of the rule should 
merit dismissal. The pawn brokers should not be mere 
receivers of stolen goods, as some of them now seem to 
be, with the aid and good will of detectives. 

Rhinelander Waldo, Esq., 

Commissioner of Police. 

B agues' Gallery Injustice 

January 8, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Waltzer: On receiving your letter inform- 
ing me that your picture was unjustly in the Rogues' 
Gallery, I at once inquired into the case. I found it to 
be just as you state, namely, that you had never been 
arrested but once, and that the charge of larceny made 
against you then by a policeman was found to be un- 
founded and you were discharged. Nevertheless your 
picture was put in the Rogues' Gallery labelled " General 
thief," and it has been there ever since. I have had it 
taken out of the Rogues' Gallery and I am herewith send- 
ing it back to you. I would also like to do whatever else 
I can to make amends for the very great wrong which has 
been done to you. About the time you were treated in 
this way a large number of other boys in this city were 
being treated in the same way. But an end has been put 
to that sort of thing, and I trust forever. 

Mr. Isidor Waltzer, 

New York City. 

'' The Singh Tax " 

Jan. 26, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Ellsworth: The bill which you call the 
Sullivan-Short bill has not been submitted to me. The 

74 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

purpose of it is to throw ail real estate taxes on the bare 
ground, and exempt the buildings. This means the carry- 
ing out of the theory of the late Henry George, i. e., to 
have a single tax, i. e., only one tax, i. e., on the bare land 
only, all buildings and improvements to go free of taxes. 
If you will get Mr. George's book, " Progress and Pov- 
erty," you will find the whole theory stated. The result 
of such a law would be to practically confiscate the values 
of all land in cities. The effect would be to absorb into 
the pubhc treasury by means of taxes the entire ground 
rent, which may be fairly stated at somewhere from fom* 
to five per cent, of the value of the bare land. Of course 
if all ground rents should be absorbed into the pubhc 
treasury, there would be no sale value of land left. To 
speak plainly, this would destroy or confiscate all such 
land values. You have to decide whether this would be 
just. Such a system of taxation may be the best. But 
as society has been constituted from the beginning under 
a different one, and people have invested their money in 
land values under that system, would it accord with jus- 
tice for society to destroy their investments by a new 
system ^vithout compensating them for their loss? The 
subject is a big one, politically and morally. But read 
" Progress and Poverty," and see what you think about it. 

T. Gardner Ellsworth, Esq., Sec'y, 

Farmers' and Taxpayers' Assn. 



Patvnhrokers 

February 7, 1912. 

Sir: The practice had grown up in the pohce depart- 
ment of detectives telling persons whose stolen property 
was found in pawn shops to pay the amount loaned on 
the property in order to regain possession of their goods. 
They were told that they had to pay the said amount in 
order to get their goods. This was all illegal. A person 

75 



MAYOR GAYxNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

whose property is stolen can follow it anywhere and take 
it, and is entitled to take it by law. No one can get any 
property in or lien on stolen goods as against the true 
owner. An order was therefore issued prohibiting mem- 
bers of the force from advising or telling owners of stolen 
property to pay the pawnbrokers in order to regain their 
property. The result has been that many pawnbrokers 
are refusing to deliver up stolen j^roperty without being 
paid. I call your special attention to Manning Brothers 
who keep a pawn shop at 584, Eighth avenue, who refuse 
to deliver up the jewelry stolen from Mr. Suydam. 

I am now instructing the Police Commissioner to send 
to you the name of every pawnbroker in the city who 
refuses to deliver up stolen goods without being paid the 
amount of his loan by the owner thereof, and you will 
please institute proceedings against them for the revoca- 
tion of their licenses if they persist in this course. 

James G. Wallace, Jr., Esq., 

Chief of Bureau of Licenses. 



Police Control of Excise, Gambling and Prostitutio7i 

February 10, 1912. 

Dear Sir : Since you called on me with the other mem- 
bers of your committee on the police which was appointed 
at the mass meeting, I have continued to consider the mat- 
ter of taking away from the police department the en- 
forcement of the law with regard to excise, gambling and 
prostitution, and conferring that power and duty upon a 
new department to be created by the Legislature. After 
your call I requested Assemblyman Greenberg not to in- 
troduce the bill he prepared for that purpose (and which 
I handed to you), until your committee had fully con- 
sidered it. If such a bill is to be introduced, I should prefer 
that it be under the auspices of your committee. 

It is easy for the police to extort money from the 
keepers of hotels, saloons, gambling houses and houses 

76 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SP EECHES 

of prostitution, under threats of entering their places and 
arresting and prosecuting them unless they pay for im- 
munity therefrom. And such persons are certain to seek to 
bribe the pohce. 1 found that condition in full blast when 
I came in as Mayor. It had existed for many years. The 
hotels, saloons, gambling houses and houses of fornica- 
tion were paying a weekly or monthly sum for such im- 
munity. The total sum was immense. I knew that the 
recipients would not let go of this graft at my mere bid- 
ding. I have been struggling persistently ever since to 
remoA^e this condition. I think I have succeeded with re- 
gard to the saloon and hotel graft. I know that I have 
measurably succeeded in respect to gambling houses and 
houses of fornication. But to remove the evil entirely re- 
quires time, for it is of long standing and deep seated. 

Police Commissioners Cropsey and Waldo have put 
many gamblers and keepers of houses of fornication out 
of business. The result has been to provoke some of them 
to reveal facts with regard to the bribery of the police. 
It seems to be lost sight of to some extent that all of these 
revelations of police bribery came from this enforcement 
of the law against the persons who made such revelations. 
It was to be expected that enforcement of the law would 
bring about such revelations. Rosenthal, for instance, 
opened twelve different gambling places successively after 
Waldo was made Commissioner, but was put out of busi- 
ness every time. While the police were still in possession 
of the last place which he opened he made revelations 
against the police. The same thing occurred in the case 
of Sipp, whose house of fornication was suppressed by 
the police. And the same is occurring with others. But 
most of the revelations which are being made are of things 
which occurred under former administrations of the city 
government, some of them as long as fifteen years ago. 
The effort of certain newspapers to make it appear that 
these revelations are of occurrences which took place since 
Waldo became Police Commissioner will not, I am cer- 
tain, deceive any intelligent person. The ignorant may be 

77 



MAYOR GAYNOR^S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

deceived for a time, but not the intelligent. Meanwhile, a 
considerable number of corrupt officials in the police de- 
partment have been removed or compelled to resign. If 
we could get the old time grafters out, we would at the 
same time get rid of most of the graft. But it takes time 
and patience. They cannot be dismissed without strict 
legal evidence. This grafting in the cities in this country 
is of long standing, deep seated and inveterate. 

But justice requires us to always remember that only 
a comparatively few of the members of the police force are 
thus corrupted and infected. There are not as many as 
100 out of the whole force of 10,000. The great body of 
the force throughout the city, in Brooklyn, in Queens, in 
the Bronx, in Richmond, and in most of Manhattan, is 
doing its duty faithfully day after day. It is only in two 
or three localities in Manhattan that this graft evil exists. 
But the corrupt doings of the few corrupted policemen in 
these localities give the whole force a bad name, at all 
events in the minds of unthinking people. The result is 
an unfavorable effect on the whole force, more or less. It 
distracts it from its duty. And the indiscriminate abuse 
heaped on the whole force by corrupt and sensational new^s- 
papers for the derelictions of a few must of course have 
a bad effect also. 

It therefore seems that it would be a wise thing to take 
away from the police force all supervision over or contact 
with the three things I have mentioned and confer the same 
on a separate force to be created for that purpose. Of 
course that new force would also be subject to the same 
temptation, and w^ould be corrupted more or less. But 
their misdeeds would not reflect on the police force. The 
police force would be engaged solely in preserving the 
peace, and keeping outward order and decency, and in the 
detection and prevention of ordinary crimes, in the which 
opportunities for graft are small. It would have nothing^ to 
do with the enforcement of the laws concerning excise, 
gambling and prostitution, and would not be subject to the 
infection of corruption therefrom. 

78 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

As 1 have said, this new force would be open to such 
corruption. But the danger thereof would be minimized 
if the commissioner of the new force were given the power 
to appoint and dismiss at will. That would enable him to 
select competent persons and to get rid of every member 
of the force of whom he had any suspicion. As it is now 
no member of the poHce force can be dismissed except on 
common law proof showing him to be guilty of some dere- 
liction. If the same rule should be made applicable to the 
new force, then I do not see that anything would be gained 
by creating such a force. 

After careful consideration I favor creating this new 
force. But I am not in favor of putting it under a board 
of commissioners to serve without pay. On the contrary, 
to be effective it ought to be under a paid commissioner 
who would have to devote all of his time to his duties. I 
have no doubt that better results in government are ob- 
tained from paid officials than from voluntary officials. 

I have all the more reason to be in favor of this new 
method for the reason that I have adopted a similar method 
in the police force itself, and it has worked well. As you 
know I made up a separate force within the force itself to 
deal with the three things which I have mentioned, and re- 
lieved the rest of the force from dealing with such things. 
To leave all of the captains and inspectors free to deal witli 
liquor saloons, gambling houses and houses of fornication 
is only to make extensive corruption certain. I tried to 
bring the contact with these three things down to one 
point, namely, to the commissioner himself. To do that I 
created a separate force which was placed under the imme- 
diate orders of the coromissioner. As you are aware, one 
of the three lieutenants put over that force by the Com- 
missioner was corrupted. But the extent of corruption 
was reduced many fold, and I have no hesitation in saying 
that it was never less in the police department for a genera- 
tion than during the last two years. But although that 
method has measurably succeeded I think a new force, 
wholly disconnected from the police force, would work out 

7» 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

a still better result. And above all things as I have al- 
ready stated, whatever corruption there might be in that 
force would not reflect upon the police force. 

I have a letter to-day from Assemblyman Greenberg 
who is restless about introducing his bill. I shall send 
him a copy of this letter, and it may be that he will wait 
until you have carefully revised his bill or drawn a new one. 
Or it may be wise for him to introduce his bill and have it 
printed so that it may be circulated. In that way we would 
get the co-operation of many others. I shall be glad to 
confer with vour committee further about this matter, 
and to have a session with you in the near future. 

Allan Robinson, Esq., 

New York Citv. 



^^^* March 8, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Gerdes: I regret to say that I have so 
many official duties pressing upon me that I cannot just 
now devote any time to the tom-cats, as you request by 
your letter. There are a few in my neighborhood, but I 
go to sleep and let them howl. It amuses them and doesn't 
hurt me. But some say that it is the pussj^-cats that howl, 
and not the tom-cats. How is that? We must not kill 
Tommy for the sins of Pussy. And, also, let us remem- 
ber that the " female of the species is more deadly than 
the male." 

Theodore R. N. Gerdes, Esq., 

New York City. 



A Touch of Philosophy 

April 18, 1912. 

My dear Doctor Finlej^: I am returning to you the 
fine edition of " Marcus Aurelius " which you loaned me. 

80 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

The beautiful type and uiecbanical work added to the joy 
of again reading the philosophical reflections of that greal 
ruler. He wrote them on his tablets for the mere joy of 
the thing. He does not seem to have desired to communi- 
cate them to posterity. But we must not rate them too 
high. To say that in their conceptioTi and morality they 
equal or approach the philosophy of Jesus, as do John 
Stuart IVIill and others, seems to me a great exaggeration. 
Nor do they approach the philosophy and sublimity of 
the Old Testament in its conception of a universe subject 
to the fixed laws of one God-head. The re-reading of them 
has again produced in me the same state of mind with 
which I have always laid them down heretofore, namely: 
Consider that the great universe of which thou art only 
a trivial speck, is governed by fixed laws, and be there- 
fore content in all things, and especially to die at any time, 
and abide God's will of thee, whether of individual future 
life, or dissolution into universal mind and matter. 

My mind is all the more impressed with this now, for 
I have spent much of this day considering the death of 
those who went down on the steamship " Titanic," and 
preparing to take care of the survivors of that awful 
catastrophe on their arrival here tonight. 

Dr. John H. Finley, President, 

College of tlic City of New York. 



Purchasing Carrots and Cabbages by the Department 

of Charities 

May 6, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Fee: Y^our letter with regard to the rejec- 
tion of your vegetables is at hand. I must say I deem the 
condition that the carrots be of one size as whimsical. 
What difference does it make whether thev are of uniform 
size or not ? They may look nicer, but will taste no better 
either to men or horses. Y^ou would have to have a good 
manj^ acres of them to cull out any considerable number 

81 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

of the same size. But maybe they thmk there is some way 
of growing carrots all of the same size. Aiid the condi- 
tion that your new cabbages be white in the head is another 
extraordinary notion. New cabbages are rather green. 
Late cabbages get white in the head after a while. I fear 
those who are rejecting your vegetables never raised either 
cabbages or carrots or anything else. Try them again, 
and see what they say? How would it do if we send them 
all out on a farm for a year or so that they may learn at 
least the difference between their knee and their elbow 
about vegetables. 

James T. Fee, Esq., Manager, 

Contract Department, 

New York. 



Police and Boys Playing Ball 

May 15, 1912. 

Dear Master Van Buren : Y^our letter complaining of 
the police chasing you and your companions out of the lot 
where you play ball is at hand. I will take charge of the 
matter and see what we can do. Most of the police be- 
have with intelligence, but I am sorry to say there are a 
few stupid ones on the force j^et that we would like to get 
rid of. A policeman ought to be the friend of the boys 
on his beat. I am very desirous of having the police let 
the boys play on every available lot or space in the city. 
In this case you have the permission of the owners, and I 
do not see why the police meddle with you, except to see 
that your ball does not fly over the fence and hit someone. 
You boys have to play somewhere. The people who think 
you ought to stay in the house all the time are also very 
stupid or else very ill-natured. 

Master Charles Van Buren, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 

S2 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Boost Higlier Up 

May 23, 1912. 

Dear Mr. O'Gilby: I sympathize with you in the loss 
of your chickens. My hen roost on Long Island lias also 
been entered. You say there are sixty-five policemen in 
your precinct and demand more. Down my way there are 
only four constables in a territory about ten times as large 
as yours, with a population not much less. It is pretty 
hard to keep chicken thieves out of chicken roosts by 
policemen. However, I shall see what can be done for 
you and your neighbors. Can you not induce your 
chickens to roost higher? 

William S. R. O'Gilby, Esq., 

West New Brighton, S. I. 



To a Man Arrested for Spitting 

May 27, 1912. 

Dear Sir: I shall look into your case, but I never 
could understand why boys and men will go around spit- 
ting. It is disgusting. Why should boys and men spit 
any more than girls and women? Did you ever think of 
that? What is the use of being so nasty? 

Mr. Felix R. Solomons, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Newspapers 

June 10, 1912. 

The National PubHcity Bureau : You ask me to give 
an interview saying " What I would say to the readers of 
3,000 newspapers." I would say to them to be very care- 
ful about believing all they see in the newspapers. 

C. E. Baird, Esq., 

Scranton, Penna, 

S3 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Sunday Games 

June 11, 1912. 

Dear Dr. Bailey: Y'our letter communicating to me 
the resolution passed by the Prospect Heights Presby- 
terian Church with regard to playing games in the parks 
on Sunday is at hand. A great majority of the people of 
the city, and I think of the clergymen of the city, would 
be opposed to stopping them. I was myself brought up 
to the observance of a still Sabbath. But as we had to 
work hard in the fields and woods on week days we were 
willing to keep still on Sunday. Of course you know that 
is not the case with our city men and boys. Many of them 
have no day of recreation except Sunday. What would 
you do with them? If they do not play in the fields they 
will go somewhere else, as you know. Where would you 
have them go? No doubt your church has solved that 
problem, and I should be ver}^ glad to have you let me 
know how it has been solved. Some of our clergymen 
who have not been able to solve it are offering to go into 
the fields and play with the boys of their congregation on 
Sunday afternoons. They dread to have the boys driven 
to the saloons, or to worse places. The conditions in cities 
and in the country with regard to Sunday are very dif- 
ferent. Please remember also that people have a right 
to indulge in any game or recreation on Sunday which is 
not prohibited by law. 

Rev. Edwin D. Bailey, 

Brooklvn, N. Y. 

On the Still Sabbath 

June 21, 1912. 

Dear Colonel Bacon: I have your letter enclosing 
the letter of Mr. Steele. If I could lawfully stop games 
on Sunday and should do so in one place I would have 
to stop them everywhere. I have to do the best I can. 

84 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



When 1 was a boy we kept still on Sunday, but we worked 
in the fields and ni the woods every other day in the week, 
and it was not a difficult matter to keep still on Sunday. 
But the case of our boys and young men here in the city 
is very different. They are cooped up in factories and 
workshops and offices the whole week, and as a health 
measure, to say nothing else, it may be necessary that they 
get out in the fields and play games on Sunday. There 
is no human law forbidding it, and the vast majority of 
people are of opinion that there is no divine law forbid- 
ding it. One of the Ten Commandments forbids work, 
but not play, as has often been pointed out. And as Mr. 
Steele says in his letter to you, Jesus departed from the 
still observance of the Sabbath, and when called to account 
for it said: " The Sabbath was made for man, and not 
man for the Sabbath." Nowhere in the world has there 
ever been an idea of a still Sabbath except among the 
ancient Jews and in the British Isles. Sometimes I think 
this is some proof that the lost tribes of Israel found their 
way up into the British Isles and settled there. But never 
on the continent of Europe was it deemed wrongful or 
sinful to take physical exercises and play outdoor games 
on Sunday. People there have always, from the remotest 
times, resorted to the fields for physical exercises and 
games on Sunday, especially after church. When John 
Knox went to visit John Calvin at Geneva on a Sunday 
afternoon he found Iiim out in the fields playing at bowls 
with his two sons and his neighbors. Moreover, the Chris- 
tian Church never from the beginning prescribed any rules 
for the observance of Sunday in respect of physical exer- 
cises or games or play. Not many years ago, as you 
doubtless w^ell remember, some one wrote to the Arch- 
bishop of Canterbury complaining of Mr. Balfour, then 
Prime Minister, for playing golf on Sunday. The Arch- 
bishop responded in w^riting that: " It is certain that the 
Christian Church lias never laid down detailed directions 
affecting the actions of individuals in this matter. Each 
is responsible to God for using the Lord's Day so as to 

S5 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

fit him best for the working days that follow." Aiid as 
for the civil law, I know of no statute forbidding exercises 
or games on Sunday generally. There are certain things 
forbidden. Beyond that the law leaves everyone to deter- 
mine according to his ov/n conscience how^ he shall spend 
the Sunday. But I shall not pursue the subject. You 
and I would like to see everybody go to church Sunday 
forenoon, before going to the fields in the afternoon for 
exercises, if they decide to go. As it is, the majority of 
clergymen, I think, as well as of people in general, are 
against stopping Sunday exercises and games in the open 
fields. The last thing we should try to do in this world 
is to force our religious opinions or prejudices on others. 
I suppose you saw the uncharitable, and even mean letter, 
written to me bv the Reverend Bailev. It is no wonder 
his church is nearly empty Sunday after Sunda3\ 

Col. Alexander S. Bacon, 

New York City. 



Belief in God 

June 17, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Guiteau : I thank you very much for send- 
ing me your religious poem. I say religious, because it 
breathes the very spirit of religion. And j^et with those 
who find themselves only able to believe in God, >^dthout 
beheving other things, there should be no quarrel. Every 
one can say that he believes in God, and in His benign 
rulership of the universe by fixed laws. If some of us find 
it difficult to beheve anything further, I am certain God 
does not condemn us. Why then should anyone else? 
Some people say they do not believe in God, even. I do 
not believe them. No one can sincerely say that. 

John Wilson Guiteau, Esq., 

Dobbs Ferry, N. Y. 



MAYOR GAVNOirS LETTERS AND SPEE CHES 

DemGcracij and Despotism 

(To the school children of the City of New York, written at 
the request of the Superintendent of Public Instruction, to be read 
to them on Independence Day, 1912.) 

June 29, 1912. 

Our couiilry is a free eountry. Our government is a 
democrac}'. JJemocracy is the rule ol' the people by them- 
selves. Ihe way this is done is as follows: The people 
enact their own laws, rhese laws prescribe how tiiey shall 
be governed. Then the people elect their own officials to 
carry out or execute these laws. If the number of the 
whole people vv^ere small enough, they could meet in one 
place, in a big hall or in a field, and enact their laws by 
their own voice. But as our numbers are too great for 
that, we divide ourselves up into sections or districts, and 
each district elects representatives, and all of these repre- 
sentatives meet in ^^hat we call the Legislature, and enact 
our laws. That is a representative democracy. If our 
laws do not suit us it is because we do not elect persons 
who carry out our will in the Legislature. That is our 
o^\Ti fault, namely, through ignorance or negligence we 
elect unfit men. And if we elect unfit men to office to carry 
out or execute our laws, that is in the same way our o^vn 
fault. The only way, therefore, to have good laws, and 
good officials to execute them, is by the intelligence and 
virtue of the people. We therefore spend immense sums 
to educate the people. Tlie object is to make them fit to 
vote. If the people are themselves intelligent and vir- 
tuous, they v.ill vote right, and the result will be good 
laws, good officials, and good government. But if the 
people are not intelligent and virtuous, the result will be 
the reverse, namely, bad laws, bad officials, and bad gov- 
ernment. Now you see v.hy your parents are paying large 
taxes to educate yon. If you and the generations who 
come after you should lack the necessary intelligence and 
virtue, then our form of government must come to its 
downfall. I hope our common schools \v\\\ postpone in- 

87 



MAYOK GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

definitely that fatal hour. The downfall of the rulersiiip 
of the people by themselves means a return to despotism. 
Under that form of government which we call despotism, 
the ruler does as he likes without regard to the people. 
He arrests them, he locks them up, he takes their hves, he 
takes their property, to suit himself. We must therefore 
be vigilant of every little approach of despotism, however 
little it may be. We must see to it that those whom we 
elect to office do not go outside of the laws, or set them- 
selves up above the laws, and do as they please. It always 
has been the case throughout the world that the officials 
who did this did it on the plea that the laws were not good 
enough — that they could do better than the laws pre- 
scribed. Beware of all such officials. We do not want 
officials who have any lust of power. We want officials 
who are very careful about exercising power. We want 
officials who are careful to exercise no power except that 
given to them by the people by their laws. There is no 
more dangerous man in a free country, in a democracy, 
than an official who thinks he is better than the laws. The 
good man in office should be most careful not to set a bad 
example or precedent for his bad successor, who will come 
along sooner or later. 

On every recurring Independence Day we should seri- 
ously consider these things, and consecrate ourselves anew, 
even upon our knees, to God's will, in the full conviction 
that His will is that the people shall by their ever growing 
intelligence and virtue continue to rule themselves, better 
and better, year after year, forever. 



Happiness 

July 8, 1912. 

Dear Madam: You are looking for happiness in the 
wrong direction. I do not think there is any man living 
who would suit you. If j^ou want to be really happy for 

88 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

the rest of your life, work for the happiness of others, and 
forget yourself. 

Mrs. Clara li. Brown, 

Chicago, 111. 



Workmen s Compensation and Pension Laws 

July 23, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Archer: I am much indebted to you for 
sending me the workmen's compensation act passed in 
Ohio this year. The provisions in it requiring the creation 
of a state insurance fmid, by means of a tax on employers 
and employes based on the aggregate wages paid by each 
manufactory or establishment, to pay for injuries and 
deaths of employes by accidents in their work, create an 
admirable sj^stem. Nearly all the govermnents of the 
world outside of this country have some similar law for 
the benefit of employes. It is an old thing in Europe. 
Every European nation has such a law except Turkey 
and some states of Switzerland, and throughout the world 
we find similar laws as a rule. Prussia had one as early 
as 1847, I think. In this country we lag behind the world 
in this just and humane matter. I doubt if any govern- 
ment has a better law on the subject than this newest one 
of all which j^ou have in Ohio. But will the courts knock 
it over, as the highest court in this state did with the very 
moderate one we passed in this state as a beginning three 
years ago? People are beginning to see that social and 
economic justice requires that we have these laws. The 
industrial workers should be paid for the injuries which 
they receive in their work, and the dependents of those 
killed should be likewise paid. It is easy to accumulate 
a fund for this purpose by a light tax on employers and 
employes. In England tlie employers are taxed for a 
part, the employes for a part, and general taxation makes 
up the remainder of the fund. Russia has a model law on 
the subject. I think the recent English one is modelled 

89 



MAYOR GAYiNOR'S LETTERS AND SFEECHES 

on the iiussiaii one, but you are more competent on that 
iiead than 1 am. 

I suppose you know that here in this city we are em- 
powered m our discretion to retire on an old age pension 
all old persons who have been in the city emplopnent for 
thirty years. We also have old age pension laws for sev- 
eral of our Departments. For example, our street cleaners 
have a pension fund out of which they are paid a perma- 
nent yearly smn after they are retired from the employ- 
ment of the city on account of old age or physical or 
mental disability. And we are soon to have such a law 
for all of our city employes. Why should not the same 
rule apply to all industrial workers as well as to those who 
work for the city of New York or other cities^ I hope 
the time is fast approaching when that will be so. It has 
been voluntarily established b}'^ some railroads and large 
industrial establishments. Those of us who ventured to 
say a word in favor of such things a few years ago ^\'^ere 
denounced as socialists and anarchists, used as words of 
opprobrium, especially by newspapers and people who do 
not know what socialism is. Let them call it anvthino- 
they like. Distributive justice requires that it shall come 
to pass. The old workers should not be turned out to die 
or live in distress or go to the poorhouse, nor should the 
maimed or hurt. 

It is very gratifying to learn from you that the Manu- 
facturers' Association of the United States have passed a 
resolution favoring the passage of such laws. Such a sys- 
tem cannot hurt them. It would relieve them of all law- 
suits for accidents, and of the large payments they are 
now making to casualty companies, to insure them against 
such accidents. Would the tax on them for such a system 
be larger than the premiums they are now paying the 
casualty companies? More than that, the tax would not 
really fall on them. It would go into the cost of produc- 
tion, the same as the insurance premiums tliey are now 
paying, and be paid in the end by the whole community 
in the price they Avould pay for the articles produced. And 

90 



MAYOR GAYNQR^S T.ETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

the tax would increase that price by so small a decimal 
that it would be scarcely noticeable, if at all. 

I notice that both political parties kept alool' from 
this matter in their platforms this j^ear. But all the same 
it is one up])erm()st in the minds of the people of this 
countrj^ today, and they will attend to it. They do not 
propose to lag behind the v/hole world in distributive jus- 
tice. General prosperity does not depend alone on the 
amount of the total product of industry, but more yet on 
a just division of such product among all who helped to 
produce it, v/hether by physical work or mental work, or 
both, or by furnishing capital. 

William C. Archer, Esq., 

Columbus, Ohio. 

llhetov'icians 

August 1st, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Greenspan : I thank you very much for youi' 
letter. You understand the matter correctly. I have 
not said so much as one word about the Jews in connec- 
tion with the Rosenthal murder. I have not used the 
word at all. In my letter 1 said that those whose names 
have been published in connection with the gambling 
murder, and with gambling, showed them to be " degen- 
erate foreigners '" who gave the police great trouble. And 
if vou look at the list of these names you will find that 
they are not all Jews, although it contains several or many 
Jews. But if the list were all Jews, I am sufficiently ac- 
quainted with the Jev>^ish intellect and character to know 
that the Jews do not shield criminals of their race any 
more than any other criminals. They rate all criminals 
alike. I cannot help Rabbi Wise. He is supposed to be 
a preacher and a charitable man. That he has borne false 
witness against me concerneth him more than it concerneth 
me. He seems to read the Hearst newspapers, and accept 
their statements as true. Wliat a howling Avilderness the 
mind of such a man must be. And yet he professes to be 

91 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

a teacher and is even a noisy censor. I have no use for 
these inflammatory rhetoricians. They are all voice and 
no conscience or heart. We all have to do the best we can^ 
and should of all things stand by the truth and by our 
training and convictions. A degenerate outlaw is the 
same to me, Jew or Gentile. I wish we could be rid of all 
such. 

B. E. Greenspan, Esq., 

New York City. 



He of the Crooked Mouth 

August 7, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Kosenfeld: 1 thank you very much for 
your letter. Rabbi Wise does not disturb me. I am con- 
tent that he and his like bear false witness against me, as 
they have been doing for 25 years. The better I have 
done or tried to do the more they have lied about me and 
abused me. That is their impulse. Rabbi Wise has long- 
been an exaggerator and uncharitable man in this com- 
munity. He is all mouth and no conscience. The mouths 
of rhetoricians are proverbially crooked. " He of the 
crooked mouth," is as true of the rhetorician today as it 
ever was. I have not said one word about the Jews. I 
have not used the word at all. He knows all this well, but 
is capable of asserting the contrary nevertheless. But if 
I had used the word, I am sufficiently famihar with the 
Jewish character to know that Jews are just as quick to 
denounce and disavow Jew criminals as any other kind 
of criminals. Criminals are mere criminals whatever their 
race or nationality. The Jewish race brings down to us 
from the twilight of history — from that border line where 
fable scarcely ceases and history hardly begins — knowl- 
edge of the one true and ever living God, which is the one 
great fact of the world. Such a people are too genuine 

92 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S T.ETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and steadfast to be deceived much by rhetoricians or 
demagogues, lay or clerical. 

George Rosenfeld, Esq., 

New York Cit}'. 



Woi'k and Abuse 

August 16, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Bobbitt: Thank you for your letter and 
for the articles }^ou enclose. Yes, the task of the Mayor 
of New Y^ork City is a difficult one. I knew that when 
I finally consented to run for Mayor, after having refused 
to do so twice previously. And when I became Mayor 
I said to myself that I would do all that I could for the 
people of the city and be content with the result. I also 
know all about ingratitude. I do not look for gratitude, 
or ask for it. I simply intend to do the best I can. Y^ou 
mention the outcry of newspapers. I do not even find 
fault with that. I have long been subject to abuse. And 
I have always been abused most when I did best. What- 
ever happens, I go right on the same, or try to. As soon 
as I became Mayor, I tried to put every department under 
a head who would take all politics and graft out of it. And 
then I began with one department after the other to rid 
it of politics and graft, for they go hand in hand. In that 
work I have received neither the aid nor the good will of 
the people who make the most noise in this city in the way 
of accusation and protestations of virtue. I have no rea- 
son to complain of that. I never expected their good 
will, much less their aid. I have gone right on without 
them. I think I have succeeded pretty well in eliminating 
graft from the city government. Graft has been deep- 
seated here for over 40 years in most of the departments, 
if not in all of them. I think it will be admitted that I 
have driven graft out of nearly all of them. I have even 
been fortunate enough to take most of the graft out of the 
Police Department. The matter of stopping graft in 

93 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

connection with gambling and the hke is an awfully diffi- 
cult task. Of course I have been able to give only com- 
paratively little time to the Police Department. You 
know the large things, and the small things, with which 
I have had to deal, and am dealing, since I became Mayor. 
Some of them are the largest l?eing dealt with anywhere 
in the world at this time. The amount of time and mental 
and physical exertion which they have consumed is, I 
suppose, realized by very few. But that I knew of in 
advance, and I am content with it. We tried to cope 
with this gambling and like graft in the Pohce Depart- 
ment by narrowing the contact of the department with the 
sources of graft. I could see no other way. We narrowed 
such final contact down to a single point, namely, to the 
Commissioner himself, with a special squad under him. 
And yet now we find that one of the three lieutenants of 
that squad was taking graft, although he was right with 
the Commissioner at headquarters, and under his orders 
alone. Of course it has greatly disturbed and mortified 
the Commissioner, for he is a young and sensitive man. 
As for myself, while I hope I am not without feeling, 
nothing disturbs me much. I try to take everything as 
it comes along. I of course expected that cases of graft 
would develop. The police force as a whole is good. I 
hate to see the whole force abused for the derelictions of 
one or a few. But they know I have done all I could for 
them, and will stand by them. But I hope we shall get 
at the bottom of all the graft that exists in the Police 
Department. I had started an investigation of my own, 
and contemplated public hearings, but when the Aldermen 
appointed a special committee for the purpose, I paused, 
and concluded to unite in the work of that committee. If, 
however, it is to be mere partisan and pre-election work, 
to arouse party prejudices, I shall have to withdraw from 
it and do the best I can without their aid. You know how 
things are started before election to create political preju- 
dice, and what injustice is very often done thereby. Of 
course we have also the case of the army of unfortimate 

94 



MAYOR GAYXOR'S LETTERS AM) SPEECHES 

women. That is a mournful subject, one more fit to weep 
over than for pohtical use. That evil exists everywhere, 
now as in the past, and we have to do the best we can with 
it. Those who drive girls and women to such lives by pay- 
ing them starvation wages are often the ones who cry out 
loudest against the public authorities for not exterminat- 
ing them as mere animals. Who but men made them what 
they are? Then let men deal with them patiently and 
mercifully, and do evervthins' to reclaim them. 

B. B. Bobbitt, Esq., 

Editor, The Dally Record, 

Long Branch, N. J. 

Advice on Marriage 

September 12, 1912. 

Dear Sir: There are plenty of girls who would fill 
your description right out in Minneapolis where you live. 
Just pluck up courage enough to go right up to them 
and tell them that you want a wife. But maybe that would 
be too abrupt. I did not go about it that way, because I 
did not have pluck enough, and maybe you haven't. But 
get around it the best you can, and everything will come 
out all right. 

H. R. Trimmer, Esq., 

Minneapolis, Minn. 



Bhetoricians 

September 16, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Bernstein: I thank you for your kind let- 
ter, but I have no ill-feeling against Rabbi Wise. Of 
course I have observed in common with the rest of the 
community that he is without charity or truthfulness, iJ- 
though a preacher and teacher. But I have to remember 
that he is a mere rhetorician, and you know that rhetori- 
cians are proverbially uncharitable and untruthful. The 

95 



M AYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

mouths of all of them are crooked, to use an ancient phrase, 
and you cannot expect truth or charity to come from a 
crooked mouth. 

David Bernstein, Esq., 

New York City. 

A Rlietorician 

Sept. 18, 1912. 
Dear Mr. Miller: I have your letter of September 
17th with regard to Kabbi Wise. Yes, I know he has 
made several' very uncharitable and untruthful attacks on 
me. But I bear him no ill will. He is a clergjanan, and 
it is always a painful sight to see a clergyman with no 
charity or truth in his heart or soul. He has never lent 
me a helping hand. He has studiously tried to thwart me 
and do all the injury he can. I do not know why, except 
that it is his nature. He is a rhetorician, and I suppose 
you know that as a rule rhetoricians are devoid of charity 
or honesty. To air their rhetoric they will say and do the 
most unjust and uncharitable things. But if you see him 
tell him that I bear him no ill will whatever. I have had 
to work hard as mayor to accomplish things which I set 
out to do. That he has not offered me his hand concerns 
him more tlian it concerns me, and that is also true of what 
he says of me. 

L. E. Miller, Esq., 

Editor, The Warheit, 

Manhattan. 

Police Reforms and "The Eternal Priestess of 

Humanity, Blasted for the Sins 

of the People " 

September 18, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Hayes : The delay in answering your letter 
has been due to the many things which have pressed upon 

96 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

me. Aiid then, again, I saw no use in complying with 
your suggestion when you called uj^on me that I enumer- 
ate for publication the reforms which have been worked 
out in the Police Department since I have been Mayor, 
until the tide of falsehood and abuse against the depart- 
ment should subside. My great anxiety has been tliat 
these false attacks on the entire police force might affect 
the men, and make them indifferent to the performance 
of their duties. No one can deny that all possible has 
been done to break down the discipline of the police force. 
But I am glad to assure you that from close observation 
I am able to say that it has had little or no effect either 
on the police force or on the intelligent and decent com- 
munity. I am not able to say to you what effect it has 
had upon the degenerates of the community. 

The case of Becker did not surprise me at all. Al- 
though we had done much to remove grafting and make 
it impossible in the Police Department, I knew very well 
that it would in all probability crop out in more places 
than one. The instance which has cropped out has enabled 
the degenerate press to characterize the whole force as a 
band of grafters. But I am certain that the intelhgent 
community still have in mind, and have had in mind all 
along, what we have done in the way of reform in the 
police force. In no other department has so much been 
successfully done. Let me enumerate some of these things : 
First — The first thing was to do away -with unlawful 
batteries and mistreatment of citizens by policemen. All 
over the city decent people had been clubbed, mistreated 
and insulted for years. Nothing had been done to stop it. 
The evil grew all the time. I think we have practically 
put an end to all that. It was accomplished only by dis- 
missing several from the force for unlawful violence and 
rudeness. The police now understand that they are the 
servants of the community, not their masters. That they 
had forgotten it was not due to the men of the force, but 
to the arbitrary and lawless way in which they liad been 
handled and ruled for years. 

97 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Second — We then taught the force not to arrest people 
and lock them up for petty things, but to take their names 
and have them summoned, if even that were necessary. 
That is now an accomplished fact in this city. These petty 
arrests have been largely done away with, and where 
arrests should be made for minor offenses we have taught 
the force to resort to the method of summoning, where the 
accused persons have a residence and are known. In this 
way we have protected citizens generally from being 
locked up with criminals, often overnight, only to be dis- 
charged the next day. We have also in this way destroyed 
the occupation of the professional bondsman, which was 
the source of large revenue to such bondsmen and also to 
officials in the Police Department. In this connection I 
should say we have particularly done away with the arrest- 
ing and locking up of boys for pranks in the streets, and 
minor things, which many boys are prone to commit, the 
same as we did when boys. The arresting and locking up 
of boys for such things simply hardens them and turns 
them into criminals. I suppose ever}'- intelligent person 
knows the great changes which have been made in these 
respects in the Police Department. 

Third — The practice of photographing persons ar- 
rested for criminal offenses, and even boys, before convic- 
tion, or for minor offenses, and putting their photographs 
in the rogues' gallery, thus disgracing them, and often 
making criminals of them, has been stopped. That prac- 
tice is confined to persons convicted of serious crimes. 

Fourtli — We have done away with the former practice 
of the police to take sides in strikes and labor disputes, 
and commit unlawful acts of oppression and violence 
therein. The police now understand that their whole dutj^ 
in strikes is to preserve the public peace. In order to ac- 
complish this we had to try and discipline certain officers 
who took presents, in one case as much as $1,000, from 
employers to do their bidding. 

Fifth — We did away with the so-called special police. 
There were over 1,300 of them. As you know they were 

98 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SrEECIIES 



sworn in as policemen, thereby becoming public officers. 
They were then turned over to private persons, and put 
under their pay and orders. If they did not obey the 
orders of their employer they were dismissed. So far as 
I know it was the first time in the history of government 
that public officers were put under the pay and direction 
of private persons. A pubhc officer acts under his oath 
and under the law according to his judgment and discre- 
tion. But these public officers were put under the pay 
and direction of private individuals, and had to do the 
bidding of their employers in order to receive their pay. 
The result was gross oppression and interference. You 
might as well put the JMayor of the city under the direc- 
tion and pay of private individuals. 

Sixth — There are about 10,000 hotels and saloons in 
this city. These places had long been subject to extortion 
by those who ruled over the police, in connection with cer- 
tain outside persons of influence. The moderate average 
extortion of $25 a month from each would amount to 
about $3,000,000 a year. But the gross sum of the extor- 
tion was probably much more. This was done away with. 
Instead of permitting every officer or member of the force 
to go into these places at will, especially on Sundays, and 
deal with them, and take money of them, the enforcement 
of the liquor law in the way prescribed by that law itself 
was put into effect for the first time in the city of New 
York. The old way was not that prescribed by the law, 
but a way designed to levy ffraft by enterinoj and threaten- 
ing or making arrests on the spot without a warrant, in- 
stead of reporting such cases to the District Attorney for 
liim to prosecute, all as prescribed by the statute. The 
law forbids any traffic in liquor in the barrooms of the city 
on Sunday and requires them to be vacated. In order 
that that requirement might be easily enforced, the law 
requires that all blinds or curtains of barrooms shall be 
up on Sunday, so tliat all passersby may see whether tliere 
is anyone therein. The police are required to report on 
^londav morninj? bv affidavit every barroom in which this 

99 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

law was violated, or in which anj^one was seen. These re- 
ports are turned over to the District Attorney as required 
by the statute for prosecution. The result has been a gen- 
eral closing of all barrooms in the city on Sunday. It is 
true that liquor is sold in the dining room, or the inner 
rooms, of hotels on Sunday. The answer to that is that 
the statute permits such sales. I found most people under 
the impression that the statute forbids the sale of Hquor 
on Sunday. We never had any such statute in this State. 
On the contrary, while the statute forbids the sale of 
liquor in barrooms, and requires them to be closed, it per- 
mits the sale of liquor with meals in other rooms in all 
places having an hotel license. And the courts decide 
what a meal is. The police cannot decide that. A sand- 
wich has been decided to be a meal. Hence we see sand- 
wiches furnished with drinks throughout the city on Sun- 
day. But when you get outside of this city liquor is openly 
sold all over the state on Sunday without any sandwich 
being furnished. The furnishing of the sandwich seems to 
put in the minds of people that laws may be in one way 
and another evaded. With only 10,000 police and 10,000 
hotels or liquor places, it is hard to discover and prevent 
the unlawful sale of liquor in the inner rooms. But we 
have to do the best we can. If all the police were devoted 
to that work there are not enough to go around. And, 
again, it is impossible to enforce this law when the people 
of the neighborhood do not support it. No law can be 
enforced against the will of the community, or a consider- 
able minority thereof. 

Seventh — For many years before I became Mayor, 
the police had been in the habit of violently smashing into 
houses without warrants. The force was not to blame for 
this. The blame was Math the persons in rulership over 
the police. They made the police do these unlawful things. 
Thev made use of these unlawful entries to collect g-raft 
from houses all over the city. The constitution and the 
laws forbid the forcible entry of houses except under a 
warrant obtained from a magistrate. We put this in force 

100 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and sto^jped all these lawless entries. They were called 
by the lawless name of raids. If the prescribed graft was 
not paid a raid followed. This was notice to all others in 
like case to pay up. The way to enter a house is to get 
the evidence against it, and then on that evidence obtain 
a warrant from a magistrate, and then enter, warrant in 
hand, and make the arrest. This is the effective way of 
carrying out the law. If a place is so decorous that no evi- 
dence against it can be obtained, then leave it alone. You 
have to do that with even a murderer. But if the police 
are allowed to enter all such places at will without a war- 
rant, they make use of such entries to levy graft to stay 
out. The way to enforce the law is the way prescribed by 
the law. No one has a right to go outside of, or exceed, 
or disregard the law. The highest officer in the land has 
no right to do that. If that could be done our government 
would not be a government of laws but a government of 
men, which is a despotism. The people make the laws, 
and those put in office have to conform to them. 

Eighth — The detective force has been entirely reor- 
ganized. All the incompetent persons who were put there 
by political and like influence have been put out and com- 
petent men substituted in their place. I suppose you are 
aware that it has done splendid work, and is recognized 
as one of the best secret service forces in the world. In 
fact, it largely does duty for the whole country, and not 
merely for the city of New York. 

Ninth — Formerly the vice of gambling was dealt with 
separately all along the line by captains and inspectors 
of the Police Department. The result was much corrup- 
tion of the force by keepers of bad houses and the gamblers 
and their allies. Corruption was possible at every point 
of contact. The seven race tracks on which races were 
run almost every day in and about the city of New York 
had been done away with just before I became Mayor. 
The result was that the army of gamblers who gambled 
on these tracks, were put out of that business, and thrown 
on this city. The police had a most difficult situation to 

101 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

meet. We organized a special force to deal with gambling. 
That special force of 150 men was put under the Commis- 
sioner himself. Three lieutenants were put in charge of 
them, and made subject to the orders of the Commissioner 
only. It happened recently that one of these lieutenants 
was found taking graft from the gamblers. Of course 
it was a painful thing to the Commissioner to be deceived 
in that way by one immediately mider him. But the same 
might happen to any commissioner, the same as defalca- 
tions of bank officers and trusted employes are constantly 
happening. It was painful to me, although I fully ex- 
pected that some cases of graft would develop. I knew 
very well that I could not at once destroy the deep-seated 
graft of forty years' standing. It is a matter which re- 
quires systematic work and patience. The event was fol- 
lowed by all sorts of false accusations against the whole 
force. It is now known that Becker was the head and 
front of the grafting with which he was connected, in- 
stead of being the underling or tool of anyone else. I 
think that the respectable people of the city have all along 
kept their heads about the matter, and not given away to 
clamor. They knew the Mayor's job is a hard one, and 
also the Commissioner's. At all events, conscious of what 
I had done, and tried to do, to reform the police force, I 
felt that I was entitled to the goodwill and assistance of 
every intelligent and honest person in the city, without 
regard to party politics, for you know I have entirely dis- 
regarded that in the govermiient of the city. But many 
people have attacked me in the most uncharitable and 
vicious manner, like Rabbi Wise, for instance. But they 
have moved me less than you may suppose, and you are 
well acquainted with me. In the midst of the din and 
fury I kept sajdng to myself each day: " Now you must 
be patient. A bad thing has happened. But you must 
take it as an incentive to work harder than ever to accom- 
plish what you have set out to do. Bend to God's will of 
you and be content." And that is what the Police Com- 
missioner is doing. He is a younger man, and probably 

102 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



felt the abuse and falsehood more keenly than i did. in 
the midst of all the nagging and noise we have made a 
most careful investigation, not through the newspapers, 
however, and I think we have our bearings. We are going 
right on. If we have not received the help and goodwill 
which we felt we were entitled to, we do not complain of 
it. To do away with the possibility of these gamblers and 
the scoundrels who are allied with them corrupting police 
officials here and there is a hard thing. But I think we 
will do it. We have already taken most of the graft out 
of the department, and by patience and persistence it can 
all be taken out. 

Tenth — We have already eradicated from the Depart- 
ment all graft in appointments and promotions. For 
many years they had been paid for. We resorted to the 
simple expedient of appointing and promoting from the 
eligible list in numerical order. Under that system it is 
impossible to sell appointments or promotions. 

Eleventh — I come now to a mournful subject, namely, 
that of unfortunate women. They were in the world at 
the beginning of history, yes, at that border line where 
fable scarcely ceases and history hardly begins, and they 
are here yet. They will continue to be here until by the 
aid of moral teaching the hearts and propensities of men 
shall be subdued and made better. These women are what 
men made them. One of the chief causes of their resorting 
to such a manner of life is that very often they are paid 
wages which do not enable them to live. They are driven 
to it. Yet some of those who treat them in this way come 
forward periodically to proclaim the loudest and the most 
cruelly against them. If it were possible under the law 
to lock all of these women up, which it is not, and we had 
places for their detention, which we have not, an equal 
number would promptly take their places. We have to 
deal with them as best we can. The tendency is for such 
women to congregate in one or a few localities. To pre- 
vent this tendency and scatter them all over the city would 
be the worst thing that could happen. By their example 

103 



MAYOR GAYNQirS LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

they would scandalize other women and girls all over the 
city and cause them to go astray. Dealing with them is 
a routine. I have never made any change in that routine. 
In other words, I have never adopted any new j)olicy in 
respect of them. I did only one thing in respect of chang- 
ing the method of enforcing the law with regard to them. 
Before I became Mayor it had for years been the custom 
to send policemen to drink wine and eat with such women, 
and take them to the rooms of the houses in which they 
lived, and have them undress. This was to get evidence. 
I issued orders that no policeman should be assigned to 
any such degrading service. To subject policemen to 
such temptation and degradation was an outrage. 

In past years I have gone over the literature of the 
subject of prostitution, beginning with St. Augustine, and 
ending in our own times with Lecky in his " History of 
European Morals," and the chapter of Professor Lilly 
in his " First Principles in Politics." I wish that every 
man in New York who thinks he would like to interfere 
with this subject would first read Lecky's great fifth chap- 
ter. I cannot forbear quoting this one passage from him : 

" Under these circumstances, there has arisen 
in society a figure which is certainly the most 
mournful, and in some respects the most awful, 
upon which the eye of the morahst can dwell. * * * 
Herself the supreme type of vice, she is ultimately 
the most efficient guardian of virtue. But for her, 
the unchallenged purity of countless happy homes 
would be polluted, and not a few who, in the pride 
of their untempted chastity, think of her with an in- 
dignant shudder, would have known the agony of 
remorse and of despair. On that one degraded and 
ignoble form are concentrated the passions that 
might have filled the world with shame. She re- 
mains, while creeds and civilizations rise and fall, 
the eternal priestess of humanity, blasted for the 
sins of the people." 

104 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

But let me forbear. The subject is one to weep over, 
rather than to bring into politics. And yet in this city 
little politicians and investigators every few years try to 
crawl into ofRce over the bodies of these unfortunate 
women, or by starting a hue and cry about them. But 
none of them has ever succeeded. Nowhere else in the 
world has such a base spectacle been presented. And 
there are others who in this respect, and in all matters of 
vice and crime, are constantly bent on humiliating and 
degrading this citj^ — the most decent and orderly large 
city in the world. 

J. Noble Hayes, Esq., 

New York City. 

Calmness and Philosophy in the Midst of Clamor 

Sept. 24, 1912. 

My dear Judge Clearwater: In the largest mail of 
encouragement which I have received since I became 
Mayor I find your letter of September 20. It was very 
good of one of your eminence, and not a resident of this 
city, to take the time to write me such an encouraging 
letter. I am glad you approve of my letter on police mat- 
ters to Mr. Hayes. You speak of what you call the " tre- 
mendous opposition and astounding abuse " to which I 
have been subjected, and say that you do not see how I 
stand it, or " preserve your (my) serenity," as you express 
it. I have to do the best I can. The clamor and false 
statements of vicious persons and newspapers no doubt 
hinder me some, but I have to overlook them and go right 
along. Every morning I just forgive everybody and then 
take up the work where I left off the day before and go 
right on. How else could I do it? In the din of clamor 
and falsehood I often repeat to myself the saying of 
Marcus Aurelius: " There is but one thing of real value, 
namely, to cultivate truth and justice, and to live without 
anger in the midst of lying and unjust men." That makes 
me content. I do not seek the good will of degenerate 

105 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

newspapers. The good will of intelligent and honest i)eo- 
ple is what I desire. 

The job of preventing scoundrels from bribing the 
police, and the police from taking bribes from scoundrels, 
is a difficult one. I hope I have succeeded largely, and I 
hope in the end that I shall succeed entirely. After 40 
years of graft and corruption, and of rulership over the 
police by dishonest, lawless and ignorant men, it is not 
an easy thing to bring about a better order of things. I 
was not at all surprised when it was found that Lieut. 
Becker was taking graft. That was nothing new in the 
Police Department. It would have been nothing new 
if the Police Commissioner himself was found to be tak- 
ing graft, according to the past history of that Depart- 
ment. But I have a Police Commissioner who is incapable 
of taking graft. And I have an able and honest man at 
the head of each of the other departments of the city, and 
reform and good work are being done all the time. Con- 
scious of this nothing can disturb me, although I may be 
to some extent baffled by the opposition of criminals and 
degenerates. If I am ever inclined to feel discouraged 
when these are joined by persons who believe themselves 
righteous, but never give me a helping hand, a mo- 
ment's withdrawal into my inner self makes me patient 
again, and able to see again in the complexities of 
things only the slow working out of God's will. And let- 
ters from men like you, and good women, make me know 
that we are not working in vain. 

Hon. A. T. Clearwater, 

Kingston, N. Y. 

Stick Pins 

September 26, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Tanenbamn: I fear I have no power to 
prohibit the ladies from having stick pins in their hats. 
Suppose you apply to the Board of Aldermen? They 
seem to be able to do almost everything. I must confess 

106 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

that I never saw anyone Inn-t by a lady's hat pin, but since 
you say so, and since the Prefect of the Rhone Depart- 
ment has issued an edict against ladies' hat pins, I sup- 
pose they must do much slaughter. But is it altogether 
seemly for a man to get his face so close to a lady's hat 
pin as to get scratched? Shouldn't such a fellow get 
scratched? 

Moses Tanenbaum, Esq., 

New York City. 

Police Interference at the Polls 

October 9, 1912. 

Dear Sir: Y'our letter of October 8tli containing a 
" protest " and a " demand " regarding where the police 
shall be stationed and what they shall do on Election Day 
is at hand. Your tone is peremptory, but suffer me to say 
unto you that you share a grave misunderstanding in re- 
spect of the power and duties of the police at elections. 
Their duty begins and ends with preserving the peace. 
The law provides election officers to conduct elections, 
and clothes them with ample powers. It even expressly 
confers on them the powers of arrest possessed by peace 
officers. The police have no right or power to forbid any- 
one to vote, or to prevent any one from voting, or to as- 
sist any one doing the like. Your request that poKce 
officers be stationed in the polling places for that purpose 
cannot be entertained. Any intimidation whatever at the 
polls is illegal. To station policemen in the polls to pre- 
vent or obstruct or intimidate those who come to vote 
might and probably would grow into an evil which would 
destroy our system of government. That is the way they 
do in Mexico and Russia to carry elections, but not in a 
free country. It is one of the ways of despotism. To 
avoid such an overwhelming evil our law makes every 
man a sovereign on Election Day. He cannot be inter- 
fered with on the way to the polls, or at the polls, unless 
he do some act in breach of the peace. The only way to 

107 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

stop him from voting is to challenge his vote as unlawful. 
This any election official, watcher or citizen may do. When 
that is done he cannot vote unless he take the prescribed 
oath, and in that way swear in his vote, as the phrase is. 
If he take the oath no one can stop him from voting. If 
he refuse to take the oath he must withdraw without vot- 
ing. If he refuse to withdraw he may be arrested and 
taken out. If he vote illegally, with or without the oath, 
he may be arrested after he votes, not before. 

To allow the police to say who may and who may not 
vote, or to interfere to prevent people from voting, would 
render our elections no longer free. And free elections 
are the cornerstone of our system of government, i. e., of 
free government, i. e., of government by the people. Can 
you not perceive how rapidly such an evil would grow, 
and how fatal it would become? Have you ever read the 
law and history of elections in this countrj^, or in Anglo- 
Saxon countries? Do you know that from the earliest 
times no show of force has been allowed at the polls ? Do 
you know that among our earhest statutes in this country 
is one copied from an ancient English statute prohibiting 
any military force from being quartered within a certain 
distance of a polling place on Election Day? To allow 
everyone to vote who will take the risk of swearing in his 
vote may lead to the evil of some illegal votes. But to 
allow the pohce to prevent people from voting by force, 
or threats, or intimidation, would result in an infinitely 
greater evil. And of two evils the law always chooses the 
lesser. Do you perceive what I am trying to make plain 
in a few words? 

I do not share your predictions of fraudulent or illegal 
voting at our coming election in this city. Permit me to 
say that nowhere in this state or in this nation are elec- 
tions more peaceable and honest than in this City of New 
York. The police will be near enough to the polls to pre- 
serve the peace, and to respond to the call of any election 
officer or any citizen to quell tumult or make lawful 
arrests. But they will not be permitted to unlawfully 

108 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

interfere or make unlawful arrests. Substantially all of 
the fraudulent voting here in years gone by was done 
under the encouragement and patronage of policemen 
stationed in the polling places to do the bidding of cor- 
rupt political leaders. Did you ever hear of that ? 

Dr. Nathan Rattnoff, 

New York City. ; 



Immigration 

October 28, 1912. 

Dear Sir: I am not able to think of even one reason 
why foreign immigration should be stopped. If you were 
to even stop the Italians from coming into this country 
it would result in immediate disaster. They are doing all 
of our heavy work all over the country. Do you not your- 
self see what would happen if they were excluded? Why 
are people here so eager to exclude foreigners? Are we 
not a nation of foreigners ? Are not you a foreigner ? Or 
was not your grandfather one? We might well exclude 
foreigners who come over here to peddle or beg, but we 
should exclude no foreigner who comes over here to work. 

Spurgeon Lane, Esq., 

Wesson, Miss. 

Children in Her Way 

October 31, 1912. 

Dear Mrs. : I thank you for your letter. But 

the cliildren on roller skates think you and your motor car 
are in their way, while you think they are in your way. 
Which is right? The point of view is everything, or at all 
events very much, as is the case in all things. Now you 
will say that I am joking with you again. Show this to 
your husband and I will leave him to say whether I have 
not got back at you pretty well. We are trying to dimin- 
ish the roller skating in places where it is dangerous for 

109 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

the children to use roller-skates. But of course we cannot 
stop them altogether. I should not like to try to. 

Walking 

October 31, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Mayor : Mr. Harvey Thoren walks into my 
office this day with a letter from you to me dated March 
12th last. He informs me that he has walked all the way 
from San Francisco here in 7 months and 26 days. He 
does not give me the hours, minutes and seconds over. But 
he is a red hot picture of health. He is a good, wholesome, 
athletic Norseman, born in Sweden. He intends to walk 
back, and I am giving him this letter to you. If I had 
time I would go with him. It would do me good. They 
knock me around pretty hard here now and then, if not 
all the time, and some days I feel as though a good long- 
walk would just suit me — the farther away the better. 
But the next day I feel all right and content again. 

Hon. James Rolph, Jr., Mayor, 

San Francisco, Cal. 

Grasshoppers^ the Broom Crop and Some Newspapers 

November 11, 1912. 

Dear Sir: Your letter of November 4th, asking me 
to assure the broom manufacturers that the grasshoppers 
did not eat up the broom corn crop in Oklahoma, as is 
reported in the newspapers, is at hand. I do not know 
why the grasshoppers should eat up the broom corn crop 
when there are so many other things much more juicy 
and satisfactory to their palates. I am therefore quite 
ready to believe you, and I shall pass the word around 
among the broom manufacturers, if I can. Perhaps the 
newspapers will do it, although it is very hard to get some 
of them to contradict their own stories. It detracts from 
the notion of their infallibility. However, we have some 
newspapers here that are just as ready to contradict them- 

110 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SP EKCIIES 

selves as to contradict anybody else. They daily contra- 
dict in their morning edition what they say in their even- 
ing edition, and in the evening what they say in the 
morning. 

» 

H. H. Henderson, Esq., 

Yalton, Okla. 

The Sahhath 

November 15, 1912. 

Dear Madam: I have jnst received your second letter 
to me about Sabbath observance, by which j^ou mean Sun- 
day observance. I agree with you about observing the 
day of rest. But we must be fair and charitable to others. 
The Christians do not observe the Sabbath Day, namely 
the seventh day, established by God according to the 4th 
Commandment, or the 3rd, as some number it. The Chris- 
tians abandoned that day, and adopted Sunday, which is 
the first day of the week. It is all right for us to observe 
Sunday, but let us have no miserable little prejudice 
against the Jews because they stick to the Sabbath. Some 
Christian sects also adhere to the Sabbath, stoutly main- 
taining that no one had the right to change the day of rest 
ordained of God from the seventh to the first day of the 
week. 

Miss Lillian Freund, 

New York City. 

Kirk Alloway and the " Auld Brig " and the " New 

Brig " 

November 18, 1912. 

Dear Doctor Morrison : I have your letter of Novem- 
ber 6th saying that you are in Ayr, and that you went to 
the little inn where Tam O'Shanter and Souter Johnnie 
used to booze of evenings " o'er the nappy," and that you 
bought a glass of ale for three cents. I was there also some 
years ago. I saw the "stirrup cup" and took a good snifter 
out of it. It is the cup which they handed to the boozer 

111 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

after he got on his horse and was about to start for home. 
I then followed Tam O'Shanter's route along the road 
until I came to Kirk AUoway, or what is now the ruins of 
Kirk Alloway. I got on tiptoe and looked in. I saw the 
whole business, witches, bogles, banshees, hobgoblins, war- 
locks, and the whole hellish pack, and also " cutty sark." 
I was in tremendous excitement. I am certain I saw the 
whole business, just as certain as that I am writing you 
this letter. My son Rufus was with me and saw it all also. 
When the lights went out and they all rushed out I fol- 
lowed as best I could, and was right in the thick of the 
bunch when we neared the "Auld Brig." And there be- 
yond the Doon I saw Tam and his mare in full gallop, and 
the tail of the mare in the hands of the witch on my side 
of the keystone of the bridge. Everything then vanished 
and another feeling came over me. I saw the " Auld 
Brig " and the " New Brig " there, and while I did not 
kneel down I came very near doing so. I never felt such 
a thrill before or since in any place. I have been to the 
Shakespeare country often, but my emotions were not 
aroused there even a little, and everybody seemed to be in 
the same condition. This Burns country is something 
wonderful. It stirs the hearts, the spirits, and the 
imaginations of all travelers. I suppose that having 
visited the inn you will complete the work by going over 
the whole route that Tam covered on his way home. I 
would like to say much more about it but I have not the 
time. I am glad to hear that you are in growing good 
health. 

Rev. William Morrison, 

London, England. 



An Extorted Marriage Fee 

November 19, 1912. 

Dear Sir: I have received your letter of November 
18th complaining that an Alderman on marrying you the 

112 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

day before at his house demanded $20 of you as his fee, 
and that you paid him, for the reason that it would have 
mortified you too much to make a protest in the presence 
of your bride and other ladies who were present. Of 
course the Alderman committed a great outrage, and he 
no doubt knew that you would pay him sooner than dis- 
pute with him openly. He had no right to charge you 
an}i;hing. I receive many letters of a similar kind. My 
advice to you all is to go to clergymen to be married, and 
then you will be treated properly. I do not by this mean 
to say that all of the Aldermen would treat you as this 
Alderman did, but unfortunately some of them would. 
You say it was all the money you had with j'-ou, and that 
you expected to use it for immediate expenses with your 
bride. I certainly sympathize with you. If someone had 
held you up in the street and taken it away from you it 
would not have been worse. You may sue the Alderman 
to get your money back, but if you do he will no doubt 
say you made him a voluntary present of the $20, and who 
knows, the judge or jury ma}^ believe him. 

Kai Brodersen, Esq., 

New York City. 



Noise 

December 9, 1912. 

Dear Mr. Davis; Y^ou complain to me of the clock 
on the Metropolitan Building. You want me to stop it. 
You say it strikes 4 times on the quarter, 8 times on the 
half, 12 times on the three-quarters, and 16 times on the 
hour, making 40 times every hour, or 210 times from 8 
A. M. to 12 noon every day. I am sorry for you. But 
really does the clock make as much noise as Dr. Park- 
hurst does? You know we all have to bear with some- 
thing, and I am willing to bear my share of it. 

Frank L. Davis, Esq., 

New York City. 

113 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Why Did You Not Write to Dr. Parkhurst 
or Rabbi Wise? 

Dec. 11, 1912. 

Dear Emelie: Your letter directed to Santa Claus, 
New York City, has been delivered to me, since you also 
wrote my name on the corner of the envelope. You tell 
me all your troubles and poverty, and how you hope that 
sometliing will be in your stocking on Christmas morn- 
ing. I should not be a bit surprised if that happens. I 
wish I could have Santa Claus put something in every 
little stocking in the land. But why did you not write 
to the Reverend Mr. Parkhurst, or the Reverend Rabbi 
Wise, instead of to me? Do you not know even way down 
in Mississippi that according to their own statements they 
are the good men here, and that I am a bad one ? 

Miss Emelie Wilson, 

Landon, Miss. 

'' Thinks He Is Pious When He Is Only Bilious " 

December 12, 1912. 

Dear Sir: I thank you for the good-will of your let- 
ter. You advise me to " pay no attention to Dr. Park- 
hurst " and harsh people like him. When did I ever pay 
any attention to him or them, or even to the Reverend 
Rabbi Wise, except now and then to say a jovial word or 
two about them, to make them feel good? Yes, the Rev- 
erend Parkhurst began at me right after I became Mayor 
and has continued ever since. He condemned me because 
I did not prevent the pictures of that prize fight out West 
over two years ago from being exhibited in the theatres, 
although I had no lawful power to do so. On other pages 
of the newspaper in which he then wrote and still writes 
a daily column, the pictures of the fighters as they went 
through the fight were exhibited in the most repulsive 
and naked form, day by day, with other nude and nasty 
pictures. But he did not object to that. He stuck to his 

114 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

$5,000 a year job of writing his daily column. He con- 
tinues to do so, although his daily article is often, or most 
of the time, cheek by jowl with such pictures, not to men- 
tion other obscenities. But we should not condemn him 
on this score offhand. For it may be that when he takes 
his newspaper home at night he only reads his own column, 
and does not learn of the rest of its contents. Or it may 
be that his wife does not permit this newspaper in her 
home, as is the case with so many other good wives. And 
therefore he may see only his own column. Dr. Parkhurst 
does not want to help. He wants to quarrel. And yet, 
I have no ill-will against him. I would give him a boost 
any day to help him to Heaven, if that be what he is after 
in abusing me. We must not let his rancor and uncharity 
enter or influence our souls. We should be charitable to 
liim and succor him and try to reform and lift him up. 
You say he has sold himself out to this sensational news- 
paper, and is hired to WTite against me as he does. Even 
so, we should not have ill-will against him, but only charity 
and good-will. When a man hires himself out he must 
obey orders or quit. And he may be able by some species 
of casuistry to convince himself that he is doing right when 
every one else sees that he is uncharitable, unkind and 
doing wrong. Who knows, and who will be first to cast a 
stone at him? Judge not lest ye be judged. We must look 
upon him in charity and kindness. Yes, he puts his picture 
at the head of the daily column he writes. It is true that 
it is painful to see such a thing in a clergyman. But he 
evidently thinks he is a very handsome fellow, and prints 
his picture at the head of his column because he thinks we 
are all of his opinion about it, and dote and feast our eyes 
on it the same as he does. He therefore thinks he is giv- 
ing us pleasure in exhibiting his picture for us to look at 
it. So we must be kind and forbear with liim in this also. 
It is true that we cannot imagine Jesus doing such a thing 
if He were here. He would not hire Himself out to a 
sensational newspaper, and in addition put His picture 
at the head of His column. Much less would He write 

115 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

unkind and uncharitable things. His great heart would 
go out to all of us, and especially those of us who, like you 
and me, are sinners. Did you ever tliink of that? But 
still we must be kind and charitable to Dr. Parkhurst. No 
doubt he thinks he is a good man, and that is an addi- 
tional reason why we should be kind and charitable to him. 
To think one's self good, or better than others, is a mental 
trait which is hard to overcome by those who are afflicted 
with it. It is even reckoned a disease among physicians 
and has a name. That is an additional reason why we 
should forbear and overlook. And j^ou know there are 
people who think they are pious when they are only 
bilious. 

Edward Hillin, Esq., 

New York City. 



Scattering Vice 

December 16, 1912. 

My Dear Mr. Mayor : Your letter of December 14th, 
asking for a full copy of my address about vice and crime 
before the New York University, is at hand. I have no 
copy except as it appeared in the newspapers, and you 
seem to have that already. There are a growing number 
who think that unfortunate women should be licensed and 
regulated. I do not believe it. I do not think that any 
good has come of such regulation anywhere. How are 
you going to make them come forward for a license, to 
start with? And then what good would the license do? 
Some say you might check disease thereby. My informa- 
tion is that that kind of disease is just as rife in the places 
in Europe where these women are licensed and inspected 
as in England where they are allowed to run entirely loose. 
Is not that the fact? Our legislators passed a law a few 
years ago requiring that all of these women arrested and 
brought into the courts should be medically inspected, but 
our courts promptly declared the act unconstitutional, as 

116 



MAYOR GAYNOll'S LETTERS AND SP EECHES 

infringing on the liberty of the citizen. You know our 
courts have the habit of doing that sort of thing. Nor do 
1 believe that the law prescribing districts for such women 
to live in would be successful. How are you going to 
make the women go there and live there? Moreover, the 
men would not be seen crossing the line of that district. 
Everybody would point at them. The natural tendency 
of these women is to congregate in districts, and no law is 
needed for that purpose. But so soon as you fix a dis- 
trict for them by law, men will be ashamed to be seen going 
there, and of course the women will not stay there in that 
case. I suppose that what the Mayors of cities should do 
is to see that they are not driven out of the districts in 
which they naturally congregate, and scattered all over 
the city, as Parkhurst did with the women here some 
years ago. From a limited number of houses he scattered 
them into thousands of flats and dwelling houses all over 
the city, to the great scandal and misleading of women and 
girls hving therein. The licensing of gamblers is equally 
objectionable. If you license a limited number, what 
would all the others do? Y^ou would have just as much 
trouble to keep them from running gambling houses as 
you have now. It is easy for people to talk, Mr. Mayor, 
but you and I have to do the best we can under the con- 
ditions which surround us. These few virtuous people 
who think that we ought to be able to make everybody as 
virtuous as they are, or rather as virtuous as they think or 
pretend they are, all at once, would make the worst fist of 
all dealing with the matter if they had the chance. But I 
do not think they will ever be given a chance. People 
have too much sense for that. While we have gambling 
and other vices here, and some graft, I suppose you know 
that this city is the most orderly and decent among the 
large cities of the world. Certain degenerate newspapers 
and others hold it up as the contrary, but they deceive 
nobody. 

Hon. George J. Karb, 

Mayor, Columbus, O. 

117 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

" The Vestibule of Hell " and " Scamps " 

December 16, 1912. 

Reverend and Dear Sir : I thank you for sending me 
the address to yonr congregation regarding conditions in 
Greenpoint, Brooklyn. I am aware that your congrega- 
tion is very large, and it is due to you that I take notice 
of what you say. I agree with you that the people of 
Greenpoint are not given over to vice and crime and dis- 
order. The very few preachers who are saying that are 
mere notoriety seekers, and, as a rule, minister to empty 
benches, as might be expected. People go willingly to 
hear those who have the great charity and love of Jesus in 
their hearts. There are bad people in Greenpoint, the 
same as everywhere else, and we must do the best we can 
to turn them from their evil ways. I see one clergyman 
over in your immediate neighborhood says that Brooklyn 
is the " vestibule of hell." These are his words. What a 
charitable soul he must be. And yet the truth is, shown 
by the records, that Brooklyn is freer from crime and vice 
than any other equal population in the world. Its entire 
criminal business above the grade of petty offences is dis- 
posed of by one criminal court. Just think of that being 
true of 1,750,000 people. And yet there are some scamps 
who call Brooklyn the " vestibule of hell." But we must 
be charitable and kind to them, and trv to reclaim them 
from their uncharity, and their propensity to bear false 
witness. 

Rt. Rev. P. F. O'Hare, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Segregating Vice 

December 17, 1912. 

Dear Sir: I have read your letter of December 16th, 
with great interest, and I thank you for it. But you must 



lis 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

remember that the mere passing of a law does not do a 
thing. It is one thing to pass a law, and (juite another to 
enforce it. The things which you advocate could not be 
done unless a new law were passed. Neither could they 
be done if such a law were passed. You would have a 
law that all prostitutes should live in a certain section of 
the city, to be definitely bounded and set apart. Will you 
be good enough to let me know how you would get the 
women to go there and live there? Who would pursue 
them and catch them and put them there? And how 
strong a guard would you need around the district to keep 
them there wdien you got them there? And if such a dis- 
trict were bounded and established, do you think men 
would go there? Do you not know that they would be 
ashamed to be seen going there? Every one would point 
at them and laugh. And if the men did not go there cer- 
tainly the women would not staj^ there. This thing has 
been tried in different places in Europe and has always 
proved a failure. I think it was tried the last time in 
Rome, Italy. I have been told there is such a district in 
Hamburg. If there be one bounded and established by 
law, I feel certain it is only for sailors and their trulls. It 
might be that people of no shame or feeling would resort 
to such a district, but the nmiiber of such people is limited. 
There seems to be a large number of people who think that 
all you need is to pass a law that the thing be done. And 
then you advocate that all such women be medically ex- 
amined once a week. Well, if you could keep them all in 
that district by force, it may be that you could examine 
them all in the same way. But you cannot keep them 
there. How then are you going to find them to examine 
them? Do you think they would all present themselves 
voluntarily on a public notice? We did have a law passed 
here a few years ago that such women brought into the 
courts should be medically examined and treated, but our 
highest court declared that law unconstitutional and void. 
Have vou ever tlioudit of all the difficulties in tlie way? 



119 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

No one is fit to participate in government wiio has not 
studied government and law. Y^ou might as w^ell call a 
cobbler in to cut your leg off instead of employing a sur- 
geon. Y^ou also want a law locating all gambling houses 
in the same way. But you would have just as much dif- 
ficulty to carry out that law. The gamblers would 
do just as they do now, run gambling houses secretly 
wherever they can, and leave the police to find 
them out and prosecute them. And your law pro- 
viding for the hcensing of a limited number of 
gamblers, and that no other gambhng houses should be 
permitted, would be equally a dead letter. Those who 
could not get licenses would do just what gamblers are 
doing now, namely, open up secret places and take their 
chances with the police, and corrupt the police. And in 
the same way I might follow you through all your recom- 
mendations. Of course you are entirely honest about them 
all, but you could not enforce them by the mere passing 
of a law, nor could such a law be enforced. There is no 
more unwise thing in the world than to pass laws which 
cannot be enforced. 

B. F. Schwartberg, Esq., 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Washington and JLmcoln 

December 24, 1912. 

Reverend and Dear Sir : I spent two delightful even- 
ings reading your recent book, " Washington and Lin- 
coin." Once I began I could not lay it aside until I had 
read it through. I have always had a fondness for those 
books which give us what I may call the philosophy of 
history. I wish you had the leisure to take this book as a 
skeleton and fill it out, for it is evident you have the phil- 
osophical mind necessary for that kind of writing. 

120 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTER S AND SPEECHES 

The reading of your book stimulates many reflections. 
Wasliington and Lincoln were great and true men, but it 
is easy to exaggerate the greatness of individual men. No 
man, or mountain or even planet seems large when you 
think of Gk)d. There is much of halo around the names 
of Washington and Lincoln. The great eras in which 
they lived are epitomized or ajDotheosized in them. And 
in that way they survive as great. That is what made 
Elizabeth so great, or to be called so great. The great 
men, the great deeds, the great events which surrounded 
her made her great. 

Tliis is more true of Washington and Lincoln than of 
any other two characters in liistory of whom I can now 
tliink. But when you brush aside the halo and make allow- 
ance for the reflected greatness, a great man remains in 
the case of each. 

The general impression of Washington is largely 
mythical. We think of him as a good man, who told the 
exact truth always, and never got angry, and suffered 
everything patiently, and was of great justice and ac- 
curacy of judgment, but not a genius or of extraordinary 
ability. 

This is all in the main true of him ; but as a matter of 
fact he was of warm blood and prone to passion, as his 
contemporaries agree. He is even known to have sworn 
like a trooper at times. And his face was pitted, and he 
had decayed teeth, and other physical imperfections. 

But when we remember that he was Commander in 
Chief of the Colonial armies in the Revolution, and con- 
sider the vast extent of that conflict, and the things which 
he did and suffered, and the patience, vigilance, and pru- 
dence which he exercised, we have no doubt that he was a 
great man. 

He was great even in his succession of defeats. He 
looked larger after each, even to most of his contempo- 
raries. No severer test than this can be applied to a man. 

The theatre of that war was one of the largest ever 
known in the v/orld. Its strategy and logistics involved 

121 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

the longest distances of any war since Alexander went 
into Asia. Think of a British column coming down from 
Canada by the Mohawk Valley to meet at the Hudson 
River another British column coming around from 
Canada by Lake Champlain and Lake George, the 
strategy being to take possession of the Hudson River 
and thereby cut New England off from the other colonies. 
It was defeated by the check at Oriskany and the sur- 
render of Burgoyne at Saratoga. Large strategy was 
met by large strategy. 

Think of the distances covered bv the two columns that 
made the attack on Quebec, one going by the lakes and the 
other way across Maine. The prisoners surrendered hy 
Burgoyne at Saratoga were sent to Boston, and thence 
way down to Charlottesville, Va. 

And, at the end, not to mention the battles fought and 
the immense distances covered meanwhile. South and 
North, the troops of New York, Pennsylvania, and New 
England marched way down to Yorktown in Virginia and 
there ended the war by the surrender of Cornwallis. 

These are only some instances which show the great- 
ness of the War of the Revolution. To those who con- 
sider what war is and what strategy is in war, Washing- 
ton never appears greater than during the two long years 
in which he sat down with his 4,000 or less ragged troops 
at the Highlands of the Hudson and stood guard over that 
great river which held and united the New England 
colonies with the other colonies and the loss of which would 
have been fatal to the Revolutionary cause. 

He looked only to the result. He betrayed no anx- 
iety for fame, much less to do brilliant things for the sake 
of fame. If the best strategy was to sit still he was will- 
ing to sit still. From whatever aspect we view him during 
the long struggle we still see his greatness. 

When we look at him we find that he looked like other 
men and had weaknesses. But all the time there was a 
saving grace of patience in the man which balanced all his 
other qualities, good and bad, strong and weak, and made 

122 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

out of them all one of the most perfectly poised charac- 
ters of history. 

He fully illustrates the saying that patience is the 
possession of great souls. 

Then when it was all over the simple man still re- 
mained. He was entirely content to go hack to his farm 
and his slaves and his whisky distilleries and go to work. 

His character also appears to have been developed 
before he became General of the armies. He had had con- 
siderable military experience, had marched long distances, 
and fought as a soldier before the Revolutionary War. 
No one can contemplate him on the march with and at the 
awful defeat of Braddock without being impressed with 
the greatness of his character. 

And eight or nine years after the Independence was 
achieved, when he was called from his retirement to help in 
the formation of the National Constitution and to be 
President, his judgment and wisdom were still equal to 
every test. 

He was not the equal in knowledge of history, 
economics, and government of the men who surrounded 
him; but after he had listened patiently to their counsels 
his judgment was safe and sound. 

I do not perceive that he was a man of instinct. Nor 
does he seem to have had a single superstition — one of the 
weaknesses of great minds. Nothing came fully to him 
except by advice and reflection. 

The character of Lincoln was different. 

He also lived in a great time, amid great events, and 
surrounded by great men, who did great things, all of 
which is epitomized or apotheosized in him. 

But when we look to see the actual things which he per- 
sonally did we perceive that his life was in that respect a 
contrast to that of Washington. 

He signed the Emancipation Proclamation. That was 
a momentous fact in history. But it had to be almost 
extorted from him. And the Russian Emperor had done 
the like not long before. 

123 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

There were those who saw early, even from the be- 
ginning, that that measure would consolidate and energize 
those devoted to carrying on the war. But he was slow 
to see it. And yet he did finally see it, and do it and, it 
may be, at the best time, namely, in the fullness of gesta- 
tion and time. 

Unhke the case of Washington, those around him, 
and especially members of his cabinet, did not greatly re- 
spect him. Many of them were certain that they knew 
much more than he did. Some of them called him an old 
fool, others a buffoon. 

He was blamed for every blunder or failure of his 
Generals in the field. 

The newspapers, including practically all of them in 
New York City, condemned him as incompetent and 
small. 

His Generals ridiculed him and resented his inter- 
ference. McClellan showed contempt of him. Even 
Grant smiled at his military advice. In his Memoirs 
Grant tells us how when he had been called to Washing- 
ton to take charge of all the armies, and especially the 
Army of the Potomac, Lincoln brought out an old map 
on which he had marked the positions held by the troops 
on both sides in Virginia, and pointing out two streams 
which ran into the James (or the Potomac?) advised 
Grant to put his army between these two streams, 
and with his flanks thus protected, move along against 
Lee's army. Grant dryly says that he remained silent, 
Lincoln not perceiving that the two streams would be as 
much of a protection to Lee's flanks as to his. 

Grant says he would not reveal his plans to Lincoln 
for the reason that he was so kind-hearted that some one 
would pick them out of him, and in that way they could 
become known to Lee. 

But he had more philosophy than all of his advisers 
and Generals and critics put together. And herein was 
his greatness. 

His name will live principally because of his literary 

124 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPE ECHES 

ability and his philosophy, both of which were tran- 
scendent. 

The letter he wrote to the woman who had lost five 
sons in the war, his speech at Gettysburg, and some parts 
of his second inaugural would make the literary and 
philosophical reputation of any man. 

His philosophy was constant and shone through all his 
acts. 

He died at a fortunate time for his fame. What a dif- 
ferent figure might he be to-day if he had lived to go 
through all the passions of the next four years of the 
reconstruction period. 

But even in that case his philosophy would in after 
years vindicate him and reveal his true greatness. But it 
would take time. 

I note the setting you give to the adoption of the Dec- 
laration of Independence, including the incident of Frank- 
lin saying facetiously to his associates that if they did not 
hang together they would hang separately. 

But it has always seemed to me that that event was not 
as heroic as generally considered. If it had occurred at 
the beginning of the Revolution it would be one of the 
most heroic things in history. 

But when we remember that Lexington and Concord 
and Bunker Hill and Ticonderoga had been fought more 
than a year before, that the people of all of the Colonies had 
deposed their royal Governors, and set up Governments 
of their own, that Canada had been invaded and Quebec 
assaulted by the Colonists, that Howe had evacuated Bos- 
ton — that, as a matter of fact, every Colony was at the 
time independent and governing itself — the Declaration 
of Independence by the Congress of the Colonies ceases to 
have that aspect of heroism which we generally attribute 
to it. The Declaration of Independence only recognized 
an existing condition. 

And when we come to the making of the N'ational Con- 
stitution, it seems to me that that work has been the sub- 
ject of exaggeration also. 

125 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

You quote the alleged remark of Gladstone that the 
American Constitution was " the most wonderful work 
ever struck off at a given time by the brain and purpose 
of man." 

But it was not struck off at a given time. On the con- 
trary, the different Colonial or State constitutions, which 
had been framed with wisdom and care, one after another, 
during a generation, or nearly so, served as a model for it. 

Excepting the separation of the National powers 
from the State powers, and the conferring on the National 
Government exclusively those things which pertain to in- 
ternational sovereignty, I do not recall anything in it, or 
any principle in it, which the framers of it did not have 
right at hand in the state constitutions and bills of rights. 

That nice and complete subdivision of the powers of 
government among the three branches of government, the 
executive, the legislative, and the judicial, which has been 
so much extolled, was common to all of the State con- 
stitutions and bills of rights and was expressed therein 
in the most scientific and felicitous manner. 

It is enough to refer to the Virginia and Massachu- 
setts constitutions and bills of rights as samples of them 
all. 

This separation of the powers of government was 
already expressed in the Massachusetts Bill of Rights in 
a manner which has never been excelled, viz. : 

" In the Government of this Commonwealth, the 
legislative department shall never exercise the ex- 
ecutive and judicial powers, or either of them; the 
executive shall never exercise the legislative and 
judicial powers, or either of them; the judicial 
shall never exercise the legislative and executive 
powers, or either of them; to the end it may be a 
government of laws and not of men." 

You help to do justice to Thomas Paine. 
What a strange thing it is that that extraordinary man 
was so long set down as an atheist. Some people still think 

126 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

he was an atheist. And yet no man ever had a fuller be- 
hef in the existence of God, or a greater rehance upon him. 

He was an infidel, it is true. But an infidel may not 
be an atheist. A Unitarian is an infidel. Everv one is 
an infidel who does not believe in all the fundamental doc- 
trines of Christianity. 

We are not so prone to call people infidels as we once 
were. Most of us are now quite content with a man who 
can say that he sincerely believes in the existence and good- 
ness of God. If he finds it difiicult or impossible to be- 
lieve that there are three Gods or three persons in the one 
God, and the like, he is looked upon with charity, at least. 

You make some allusion to the moralitj^ of the great 
men of the period of Washington and Jefferson and Ham- 
ilton and Franklin. Y^ou specify Jefferson and Franklin. 

Thomas Hamilton, the young Englishman who 
traveled through this country and wrote about it in 1832 
or thereabout, sums up all the political scandal about Jef- 
ferson as follows, viz. : 

" The moral character of Jefferson was repul- 
sive. Continually puling about liberty, equality, 
and the degrading curse of slavery, he brought his 
own children to the hammer and made money of 
his debauchery." 

And he goes on to say that even at his death Jefferson 
did not by his will free his numerous offspring, and that 
a slave daughter of his was afterward purchased by a so- 
ciety of gentlemen at auction in New Orleans to testify 
their admiration for the statesmanship of her father. And 
he quotes that line so often bandied about concerning Jef- 
ferson during his lifetime, namely, "Who dreamed of 
freedom in a slave's embrace." 

But I think the world now knows that this was mainly 
the slander of political enemies. It is certain that it did 
Jefferson no harm at the polls, from which we may well 
infer that it was not generally believed. 

127 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Franklin did have a natural son, and took to wife a 
woman who was the wife of a man who had deserted her 
but was still living. 

But some allowance has to be made in such things in 
new countries where society has not yet assumed a settled 
form. 

You also say of Franklin that his writings can hardly 
be pubHshed to-day unless in an expurgated edition. I 
do not understand this. I do not see a thing in them to 
expurgate. I am aware that some have expurgated his 
autobiography, but the things which they cut out seem to 
me the very things most necessary for our boj^s to read. 
And they are expressed in words chaste and wholly inof- 
fensive. 

May I call your attention to an error in your book. 
You say that Chief Justice Taney said in his opinion in 
the Dred Scott case that " negroes were so far inferior 
that they had no rights which the white man was bound to 
respect." 

This is an old error. It has been repeated so often, 
and in such trustworthy places, that it is not extraordinary 
that you give credence to it. It was repeated by the 
political orators all over the country in the Fremont cam- 
paign, and again in the first Lincoln campaign, and 
thousands of times has it been written in newspapers and 
books. 

And yet there is not a word of truth in it. Chief Jus- 
tice Taney never said it, or anything like it. 

In his decision he speaks of the negro race as " that un- 
fortunate race," and gives a history of their condition dur- 
ing the century preceding the Declaration of Independ- 
ence and the Constitution of the United States. And the 
words you quote occur therein. Let me give the whole 
passage : 

"It is difficult at this day to realize the state 
of public opinion in relation to that unfortunate 
race, which prevailed in the civilized and enlight- 
ened portions of the world at the time of the Decla- 

128 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

ration of Independence and when the Constitution 
of the United States was framed and adopted. But 
the pubhc history of every European nation dis- 
plays it in a manner too plain to be mistaken. 
They had for more than a century before been re- 
garded as beings of an inferior order, and alto- 
gether unfit to associate with the white race, either 
in social or political relations; and so far inferior 
that they had no rights which the white man was 
bound to respect; and that the negro might justly 
and lawfully be reduced to slavery for his benefit. 
He was bought and sold, and treated as an ordinary 
article of merchandise and traffic, whenever a profit 
could be made by it." 

And he adds: 

" And in no nation was this opinion more 
firmly fixed or more uniformly acted upon than 
by the English Government and English people. 
They not only seized them on the coast of Africa 
and sold them or held them in slavery for their own 
use ; but thev took them as ordinary articles of mer- 

* 1 

chandise to every country where they could make 
a profit on them, and were far more extensively 
engaged in this commerce than any other nation in 
the world." 

Instead of speaking of the negro race as having no 
rights which the white man was bound to respect, he spoke 
of it in charity and commiseration, clearly revealing that 
he was of no such opinion. 

And indeed, at the time of the Dred Scott decision, 
namely, in 1856, the negro had equal rights with the whites 
in most of the States of the Union, and many rights of 
person and property w^ere secured to them also in the 
slave States. 

At the beginning we had slaves in the States here in 
the North. But on^e State after another freed its slaves 

129 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

by passing a statute for that purpose. They seem to 
have done it because slavery was economically unprofit- 
able in the North. 

And in a number of States, as in New York and 
Pennsylvania, the taking effect of these statutes was set 
far enough ahead to enable slave owners to bring their 
slaves South and sell them before the statute became 
operative. 

But I must not go on this way, or you will find me 
loquacious. My purpose was only to express to you the 
delight I experienced in reading your book ; all the greater 
on account of my agreeable personal acquaintance with 
you. I hope it will have a wide sale. It deserves it. 
Everybody in your congregation ought to read it first, if 
they have not done so already. 

Rev. Robert W. McLaughlin, Pastor, 

Park Avenue Congregational Church, 

Brooklyn. 



Free Speech and a Free Press 

December 27, 1912. 

To the Honorable The Board of Aldermen, Gentle- 
men: I return disapproved the proposed ordinance. No. 
89, entitled, " An ordinance relative to motion picture 
theatres." 

I am constrained to do this because of the provisions 
therein creating a censorship. It is provided that the 
Board of Education shall appoint one or more censors to 
examine all motion pictures in advance and determine 
whether they may be exhibited or not. 

It has hitherto been the understanding in this country 
that no censorship may be established by law to decide in 
advance what may or may not be lawfully printed or pub- 
lished. Ours is a govermnent of free speech and a free 
press. That is the cornerstone of free government. The 
j)hrase " the press " includes all methods of expression by 

130 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

writing or pictures. In past ages there were censorships 
to decide what might be pubhshed, or even beheved. 
Every Christian denomination has at one time or another 
been subjected to such censorship. The few were very 
anxious not to give freedom of speech or of the press. 
They thought the many were not fit for it. They therefore 
set themselves up as censors and guardians over the bulk 
of their fellow men. The centre of thought was then 
among the few% and they were very anxious to keep it 
there. But in the course of time, in spite of all opposition, 
the centre of thought began to pass from the few to the 
many, where it is to-day. It was then that censorships, 
and all interference with freedom of speech, of the press 
and of opinion, began to give way bj^ degrees, until in the 
end all of them, at all events with us, were abolished. And 
that is now substantially true under all free governments 
throughout the world. 

In our fundamental instruments of government in this 
country, which we call constitutions, we expressly guaran- 
teed from the beginning free speech and a free press, and 
prohibited the passing of any law abridging the same. 
The provision in the constitution of this state on that sub- 
ject, which is substantially the same as the like provision 
in the constitution of the United States, and also of the 
states ffenerallv, is as follows: 

" Every citizen may freely speak, write, and 
publish his sentiments on all subjects, being re- 
sponsible for the abuse of that right; and no law 
shall be passed to restrain or abridge the liberty of 
speech or of the press." 

So universal has been the opinion that these constitu- 
tional provisions aboKshed all censorships of the press, 
and forbade them in the future, that I have been able to 
find only one attempt in this country to set up such a cen- 
sorship before this one of yours. Our constitutional pro- 
vision plainly is that publications whether oral, or printed, 
or by writing, or by pictures, shall not be restrained in 

131 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

advance, but that every one shall be free to speak or pub- 
lish what he sees fit, subject to being prosecuted afterwards 
for libel, immoralitv, obscenity or indecency therefor. 
There seems to be a few among us who wish us to retrace 
our steps, and resort to censorships again in advance of 
publication, and make it a crime to publish anything not 
permitted in advance by the censor. Do they know what 
they are doing? Do they know anything of the history 
and literature of the subject? Do they know that the 
censorships of past ages did immeasurably more harm than 
good? Do they ever stop to think that such censorships 
now would do even more harm than they did in past ages, 
in comparison with what little good they might possibly 
do? I do not believe the people of this country are ready 
to permit any censor to decide in advance what maj^ be 
published for them to read, or what pictures may be exhib- 
ited to them. Our laws forbid the publication of any 
libelous, obscene, indecent, immoral or impure picture or 
reading matter. Is not that enough? If anyone does this 
he commits a criminal offense and may be punished there- 
for. 

If this ordinance be legal, then a similar ordinance in 
respect of the newspapers and the theatres generally would 
be legal. Are you of opinion that you have any such 
power as that ? If so, you should probably begin with the 
newspapers and the so-called high-class theatres. Once re- 
vive the censorship and there is no telling how far we may 
carry it. These moving picture shows are attended by the 
great bulk of the people, many of whom cannot afford to 
pay the prices charged by the theatres. They are a solace 
and an education to them. Why are we singling out these 
people as subjects necessary to be protected by a censor- 
ship? Are they any more in need of protection by censor- 
ship than the rest of the comnmnity? That was once the 
view which prevailed in government, and there are some 
among us, ignorant of or untaught by past ages, who are 
of that view now. Are they better than the rest of us, or 
worse ? 

182 



:\[AYOH GAYNOR/S T.KTTERS AND SPEECHES 

When I became jMayor the denunciation ol" these niov- 
ing jiieture shows by a few people was at its highest. They 
declared them schools of immorality They said indecent 
and immoral pictures were being shown there. 1 person- 
ally knew that was not so. But 1 had an official examina- 
tion made of all the moying picture shows in this city. 
The result was actual proof and an official report that 
there were no obscene or immoral pictures shown in these 
places. And that is the truth now. Wherefore then is 
all this zeal for censorship over these places? 

The truth is that the good, moral people who go to 
these moving picture shows, and very often bring their 
children with them, w^ould not tolerate the exhibition of 
obscene or immoral pictures there. A place in which such 
pictures were exhibited would soon be without sufficient 
patrons to support it. At all events, the criminal law is 
ample to prevent the exhibition of such pictures. I have 
asked these people who are crying out against the moving 
picture shows to give me an instance of an obscene or im- 
moral picture being shown in them, so that the exhibitor 
may be prosecuted, but they have been unable to do so. 
What they insist on is to have the pictures examined in 
advance, and allowed or prohibited. That is what they 
are still doing in Russia with pictures and with reading 
matter generally. Do they really want us to recur to that 
system ? 

Perhaps I should say I understand that comparatively 
few of your honorable body are in favor of the censorship. 
I^lany of you voted for the whole ordinance in the belief 
that the IMayor had the right to veto the censoi-ship pro- 
visions and let the rest of the ordinance stand. But I find 
that the Mayor may not do that. The censorship pro- 
visions are not independent of the rest of the ordinance, 
but interdependent and so connected therewith that the 
whole ordinance must stand or fall as a whole. 

I trust you will pass the ordinance which the com- 
mission prepared. It safeguards these most important 

133 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and wholesome places oi* amusement physically and 
morally. 

Decides a Newspaper Contest About Boiling Eggs 

And so I am to decide this great egg question, how to 
cook an egg, and how long to cook it? First you must 
get the egg, a fresh egg. But where are you going to get 
it? That is the most difficult part of the question. It is 
a hard job. Call in some one else to decide that. Consult 
the hens. Hens sing in the laying season, which some 
people seem to doubt. If you can get the egg while the 
hen is singing you will be sure it is fresh. And then about 
cooking it. I see you have brought it down simply to a 
question of boiling it. How to boil it? I decide that you 
can only boil it in boiling water. And how long? Why, 
that is easy to decide — as long as you like. If you want 
it as hard as a bullet, boil it 30 minutes. If you want it 
nice and soft, as soft as the pates of some people, you can 
only boil it a little while. On that head I decide in favor 
of the little girl who answered my question in the school 
She said that it would take six minutes — by which she 
meant that from the time she went to get the egg until 
she took it out of the pan cooked, six minutes would elapse. 
She was entirely right. And I suppose she also meant 
that you would put the egg in the water before the water 
boiled, and let the water heat and begin to boil with the 
egg in it. I decide that she was right in that also. If 
you let the water boil, and then throw the egg in, the 
shock is too great for the egg. You see I know a good 
deal about eggs and cooking eggs. I am just the right 
one to decide this egg question. 

His Tongue Hung in the Middle 

January 3, 1913. 

Dear Sir: Your letter calling my attention to some 
words of Rabbi Wise, and also giving me some of his per- 

134 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

sonal history, is at band. Never mind about Rabbi 
Wise. He cannot stop his tongue from wagging at both 
ends, for it is hung in the middle. I suppose some people 
like to listen to a man hke that. It is a mental rest to 
them. These rhetoricians have all been the same from 
the beginning of the world. " With malice toward all 
and charity toward none," seems to be his frame of tongue, 
and that suits all who are of the same frame of mind. The 
self-sufficient, all-sufficient, insufficient Rabbi Wise. How 
is that? I wish him a Happy New Year. He is such a 
pious and truthful man. I understand he is a man of 
such firm faith that his daily morning and evening prayer 
is as follows: " Oh God (if there be a God) save my 
soul (if I have a soul) ." 

J. C. Brooks, Esq. 

A Man of AccomiMshments 

January 7th, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Harris: Your letter about Rabbi Wise, 
who you say is not a Rabbi at all, is at hand. The par- 
ticulars you give of him are quite interesting. But I fear 
you take such blatherskites too seriously. 

He is a man of vast and varied misinformation, of 
brilliant mental incapacity, and of prodigious moral re- 
quirements. 

B. Harris, Esq., 

New York City. 

Ueply to a " Screech " 

January 8th, 1913. 

Reverend Sir: Your letter complaining that the 
Water Department is annoying you by examining the 
plumbing of your house, and requiring a leak to be re- 
paired, was duly received. You say that this course on 
the part of the Water Commissioner is (I quote you) " so 

1.35 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

positively annoying, that no decent, intelligent citizen de- 
sires to own a piece of tenement property." You also 
say as follows: " I ask you in all fairness and justice 
are you going to allow this sort of mismanagement to con- 
tinue? Can't vou find an intelligent man with common 
sense to put at the head of the Water Department?" Your 
letter is uncharitable from beginning to end. And with- 
out hurting your feelings may I add it is what is usually 
called mean. I receive such letters now and then, but 
this is the first one that has come from a clergyman. Do 
you know Mr. Thompson, the head of the Water Depart- 
ment? Do you not know that he is conceded to be a first 
class man, and probably the best Water Commissioner 
the city ever had? Why do you try to strike him behind 
his back by writing such a letter to me? Why did you 
not go to him and be fair and square with him? 

But I overlooked the uncharitable tone of your letter, 
and had a careful examination made into your case. I 
am able to report to you that a leaking faucet was found 
in your house, that you repaired it, and that your plumb- 
ing is now in good condition. May I also inform you 
that Mr. Thompson instituted an examination of the 
plumbing throughout the city to prevent waste of water 
by leaks. The result has been a vast saving to the city. 
By this system of inspection Mr. Thompson has saved in 
Brooklyn alone 10,000,000 gallons daily since last August, 
which, at meter rates, is a saving of $922,355. And allow 
me to add that this was done at a cost to the cit}^ of less 
than $25,000. In the borough of Manhattan over 60,- 
000,000 gallons a day is being saved in the same way at a 
like cost. 

Now do you not think j^ou owe Mr. Thompson an 
apology? Do you not think you ought to go to him as 
one man goes to another, and say a word of commendation 
to him instead of abusing him? 

Rev. Frederick J. Keech, 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



136 



MAYOR GAYNOirS LETTER S AND SPEECHES 

Tribute to Motherhood 

January 8, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Riess: I am in receipt of your letter in- 
forming me that your father-in-law and your mother-in- 
law, aged eighty-six and eighty-five years respectively, are 
to celebrate their diamond jubilee next Sunday, after hav- 
ing been married sixty j^ears. I wish I could attend. 
The most important thing of all is that they have raised a 
family of eight children. They are deserving of the 
highest honor, especially the mother. The women of this 
countr}^ who are postponing motherhood, or refusing it 
altogether, are denying themselves the greatest happiness 
that can come to a woman. 

Julius Riess, Esq., 

New York City. 

To the Mayor of " Boyville '' 

January 15, 1913. 

My Dear Mr. Mayor: I am informed by your let- 
ter of your election as Mayor of Boyville. I congratu- 
late you, and greet you. I hope your administration will 
be a success. It cannot be a success unless you have a 
good mental and physical spine. And also some patience 
and philosophy. And also as little conceit and smartness 
as the law allows. The self-sufficient, all-sufficient, in- 
sufficient fellow in office makes every one smile and 
shrug his shoulder, if not both shoulders, and sometimes 
wink his left eye also. You have duties to perform. You 
must not be swerved from the performance thereof by 
clamor, by abuse, by lying, by corrupt newspapers, by the 
inJfluence of party politics, or be led by any influence ex- 
cept your desire and purpose to do God's will. If you 
go along in that line your administration will be a success. 
Every evil influence will be against you, it is true. And 
such influences are very powerful in our time, and es- 
pecially in our cities. But you will succeed. Some of 

137 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

the mud thrown at you may stick for a while, but before 
your term is up it will all have worn off, or been brushed 
off by the hands of just men and women, and you will be 
seen of all as a true man who has done his duty. I do 
not know what kind of a city Boyville is, but I suppose 
it is very much like all other cities, made up of good peo- 
ple, and bad people, and uncharitable people, and a few 
people whose minds, like their livers, are filled with ulcers, 
of people who want to help you, and of people who want 
to hurt you, with a few people thrown in who hate every- 
body else, and think they are better than anybody else, 
when they are only more bilious than anybody else. If 
you are so fortunate as to be Mayor of a city that has all 
good people, then my letter has no application. How- 
ever things may be, I wish you every success. 

Hon. Edgar Mills, 

Mayor of " Boyville," 

Chicago, Illinois. 

Slavery 

January 16, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Howe: l^our letter of January 16th sug- 
gesting that one of the negro race be put on the committee 
for the celebration of the 300th anniversary of the settle- 
ment of Manhattan Island, is at hand. You remind me 
that shortly after the arrival of the first settlers the first 
negro slaves were brought here and sold at auction at the 
old stockade. How strange all that sounds. But it 
sounds still stranger that slavery existed in the State of 
New Y^ork when Lincoln was born in 1809, and was not 
abolished until the year 1827, namely, by an act of the 
Legislature. Some people are astonished when they hear 
this, and doubt it. On January 1st, 1863, President 
Abraham Lincoln by proclamation freed the slaves in all 
sections where armed insurrection against the United 
States existed. This left slavery untouched in the states 
and sections not in a state of insurrection. Slavery was 

138 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

finally abolished throughout this nation in 1865 by a con- 
stitutional amendment. It took over 1800 years of 
Christianity to strike the shackles from the slave. 

I knew out in Flatbush, now a part of Brooklyn, an 
old woman who was owned as a slave there when she was 
young. Her name was Maria Jackson. She died at the 
age of 105 j'^ears a few years ago. Her husband had also 
been a slave there. I often talked with her on the sub- 
ject, and she said her life as a slave was happy and that 
they were all well treated. 

The committee is now made up, and out of my hands, 
but I will see if the chairman can find a place for one of 
the negro race. 

»Tames H. Howe, Esq. 



Pierre Lotis Nonsense 

Febry. 17, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Johnson: I fear a lot of people are an- 
noyed by the article of Pierre Loti in the February 
Century. If it had appeared in some minor magazine, 
it would not matter, but appearing in the Century it 
will receive credence all over Europe. The picture he 
gives of this city is quite grotesque. 

As his ship comes up to the dock he says he sees " A 
thousand chimneys belch forth black smoke or white 
eddies of steam." The fact is that Europeans immedi- 
ately notice that unlike other large cities this city is almost 
free from black smoke. There are very few chimneys 
here belching black smoke. They are the exception here, 
but the rule in other cities. This is the one great city 
which has remained comparatively free of black smoke. 
And then he says that " On all sides enormous signs are 
spread out not less than 40 feet high." Now it may be 
that he saw one sign of that kind. He continues : " The 
shriek of whistles, the dismal moaning of sirens, the rum- 
ble of motors, and the din of factories, deafen the ear." 

139 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

This is all before he gets asliore. He says that on the 
declaration paper they gave him aboard ship one question 
asks him, " Are you an idiot?" Is that true? 

He linaily gets to his hotel. It is of such great height 
that he cannot tell the number of stories. The elevators 
in it are " prodigious." It overlooks Central Park, so 
that he can see the trees, and yet we find further on that 
it is somewhere over on Broadway. From his w^indow he 
says he looks down on the buildings, " all of them red, a 
dark red, shading into chocolate brown. Everywhere are 
walls of red brick ; everywhere terraced roofs, without tiles 
of course, but covered vv^ith some sort of waterproof ma- 
terial, also painted red." From what hotel window could 
he see anything like this ? Where are these red buildings ? 
He goes on: "These terraces (namely, these terraced 
roofs), form promenades for the inhabitants, their dogs 
and their cats. Men sit there in their shirt sleeves." 
Where are all these terraced roofs in the city of New 
York? I am aware that we have a few public roof gar- 
dens, but for our houses to be covered with terraced roofs 
is something none of us knew up to this time. 

Still at his window he goes on as follows : "A never- 
ending roar reaches me from below. There are automo- 
biles, as in Paris, and in addition, the elevated trains, which 
run on a noisj?^ iron trestle level with the second or third 
stories of the houses. But underground there are still 
others, rumbling like thunder in the bowels of the earth." 
From his skyscraper window he even hears the thunderous 
rumble of the subway trains. I did not know that we 
could hear these even from the surface of the street. 

He is interviewed by the reporters. They ask him 
what he thinks of the women of New Y^ork, and he 
answers: " I have seen only one woman since I arrived, 
a chambermaid in the elevator, and she was a negress." 
What hotel in New Y^ork City has negresses for chamber- 
maids or servants? 

At 9 o'clock at night he descends from the lofty story 
of his hotel and joins the crowds below in Broadway, 

140 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



from which we learn that his hotel is in Broadway. He 
gives a picture of what he sees on the sidewalk, as fol- 
lows: " And what a mixture of races. One recognizes, 
as they pass, Japanese, Chinese with the European hair- 
cut, Greeks, Levantines and fair-haired Scandinavians." 
Did he see, even one of these, unless the last? If he did, 
it was quite unusual. He then says that many handsome, 
well-dressed women went by, and goes on to say : " But 
really there are too many negresses. One passes at every 
step a black face under a large hat trimmed with roses." 
Who else ever saw this procession, especially of negresses 
in Broadway or any other street here ? 

He goes out into Central Park on Sunday. He tells 
us that squirrels have taken possession of the park. Now 
we all know that in two or three places in the park squir- 
rels come around your bench for a nut, but he gives this 
as the case all over the park. 

He then speaks of the luxury " in the opulent quarters 
that surround the park." He says: "Mulatto door- 
keepers in gallooned liveries stand under marble or 
porphyry portals flanked by Greek, Byzantine or Gothic 
colonnades, and by wrought-iron gateways of which our 
own cathedrals might be proud." I have been along Fiftli 
avenue very often, and into some of the houses, but I 
never saw any of these nmlatto doorkeepers, nor did any 
one else. 

These are some of the most extravagant things in this 
article. Where he saw one negress he seems to imagine a 
procession of them, and so on with all the sights and 
sounds which he writes of. 

May I also say a word about the article in your same 
number, " Lincoln as a boy knew him." Such articles are 
very often filled with exaggeration. The writers of them 
draw on their imagination very largely in order to 
heighten their own consequence. Did this boy ever see 
Mr. Lincoln in the handball court, and hold his coat? 
Why should Lincoln ask him to hold his coat while he 
played? And then why should we believe that Lincoln 

141 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

received while playing " the inevitable chaffing of the 
Irish players and spectators?" Why should they be so 
rude as to chaff him? Was Lincoln so grotesque that 
people chaffed him in that way? I think not. I think 
he was one of the most dignified of men. He dressed like a 
dignified gentleman, and acted like one. Among his 
slouch hat contemporaries he even wore a " tall hat." This 
writer also gives other interviews with Mr. Lincoln that 
seem to me wholly apocryphal. When he went to Lin- 
coln, the practicing attorney, for a subscription for a fire 
company he says he told Mr. Lincoln the name of the en- 
gine was to be " The Deluge," whereupon Mr. Lincoln 
entered into a discussion of the subject, and said he liked 
that name better than " S pouter " or " Gusher." How 
does he remember this? Other like questionable things 
are stated. And he says that when Lincoln was running 
for the Presidency there was a large political meeting held 
outdoors in the suburbs of Springfield, and that " about 
the grounds were hogsheads of ice water and washtubs of 
lemonade." Now I can attest that there was no such 
use of ice water at that time. It came into use much 
later. 

Robert Underwood Johnson, Esq., 

Editor, Century Magazine, 

New York City. 



Subways a7id Corrupt and Bag -hag Newsjoajjers 

Feb. 17, 1913. 

Dear Sir: Your letter about the subways is at hand. 
You say as follows: " I personally am in favor of the 
city building and controlling the subways, but I thought 
you might have a good reason to the contrary, so if you 
will please enlighten me I shall be very much obliged." 

As you seem to be an honest man, I am willing to 
write you fully about the matter. You say you favor 

142 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEE CHES 

the city building and controlling the subways, and want 
to know the reason why I am not of the same view. It is 
very discouraging to me to learn that you think I am not 
of that view. You could only have been brought to that 
view by reading certain false and corrupt rag-bag news- 
papers we have here. You certainly have never heard 
or read a word from me to the effect that I was not of that 
view. Of course you may have read the intentionally con- 
trived falsehoods and forgeries to that effect by the news- 
papers I have referred to. I am, as I always have been, 
in favor of the city building and controlling its subways. 
Do you not know that I publicly advocated that for years? 
And, as a matter of fact, do you not know that the city 
does build, own and control its subways? Do you not 
know that the city is now about to build many miles of 
subways and is to own and control them? The present 
subway was built by the city, and is owned and controlled 
by it. Every dollar that went into its construction was 
furnished by the city. Do 3^ou not know all this ? If not, 
where or under what basket, have you been living? 

And, as I have told you, the subways which are now 
about to be built are to be built, owned and controlled by 
the city. The city, however, has not sufficient borrowing 
credit to build them, unless through a long course of years. 
Therefore the operating companies are putting up one of 
them one half and the other a large part of the money to 
construct these subways. But the companies do not build 
them or own them. They only operate them on a lease. 
The money they put in for construction they pay over to 
the city and the city builds the subways with that money 
and the amounts it puts in. Did you never hear that? 
And the citv owns and controls the subways from the 
beginning. That the companies put in part of the money 
for construction gives them no ownership of the subways. 
The money they put in is paid back out of the earnings. 
The city does not guarantee it in any way. The money 
the city puts in is paid back in the same way. And when 
the subways are completed they are leased out to these 

143 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

companies for a term of years. That lease is drawn by 
the city, and gives it full control. And the city may end 
that lease by the terms thereof at any time after ten years, 
and operate the roads itself if it sees fit. 

The companies put in all of the money to equip these 
roads. The city puts in nothing for equipment. The 
city could not put in anything for equipment because it 
has not the money, namely, it has not sufficient borrowing 
margin to raise the money. Y^ou know, of course, that by 
a provision of the constitution of the state the city cannot 
borrow money or incur indebtedness beyond a sum equal 
to 10 per cent, of the real estate values as they appear on 
the assessment rolls. Did you never hear of that? If 
you never heard of these things why don't you read some 
decent newspaper and learn them, and let the rag-bag 
newspapers go? 

Now I have answered your questions fully. Y^ou speak 
only of the city building and " controlling " the subways. 
You do not speak of the city " operating " them. The city 
could not operate them now because, as I have shown you, 
the city has not borrowing credit enough to raise the 
money to equip them. If we waited until the city could 
by degrees build and equip these subways out of its own 
funds, we would have to wait one quarter of a century at 
least. Did you never hear that? The whole cost is to 
be about $300,000,000. Moreover, I think most of us feel 
that city jjolitics and government are not yet quite suf- 
ficiently stable and safe here to entrust to it the operation 
of our railways. We therefore lease them out for terms 
of years to operators; and when these leases are up the 
equipment also becomes the property of the city. The 
roads belong to the city from the start. And, moreover, 
as I have told 3^ou, there is a provision in the lease that 
after ten years the city may take all these roads and equip- 
ments over and operate them itself, if it be in a financial 
condition to do so. 

Now have I answered you, and are you satisfied? Do 
not be deceived by rag-bag and corrupt newspapers. Why 

144 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECPIES 



not drop them, and start in reading decent newspapers 
from this time on. 

Emanuel Deutsch, Esq., 

New York City. 



The Recall and Clamor 

Feb. 18, 1913. 

Dear Sir: Y^ou ask for my help in your forthcoming 
debate on the question of the recall. I do not believe in 
the recall either for judges or any other officials. We 
already have ways of removing corrupt or wrong-doing 
public officials without calling a vote on the question. And 
also our terms of office are generally so short that we can 
recall officials quickly enough at the end of their terms. 
If the recall existed more officials would give way to clamor 
than now. We have officials enough now giving way to 
the abuse and clamor of demagogue scamps and their 
ignorant followers. And past history illustrates to us 
that public clamor is almost always in the wrong. It is 
no better now than when it sent Jesus to the Cross. And 
we often mistake clamor for the voice of the community. 
It is so loud that we think it includes everybody, whereas 
in fact it mav include very few. But these few make more 
noise than all the rest of us. As you well know out in 
Kansas, one stridulent grasshopper in the angle of a fence 
makes more noise than the noble herd of cattle nearby. 
The official whom we should all honor is the one who stands 
up like a man against clamor. We hear much nowadays 
from certain public officials that they are elected to please 
the people by doing as they wish. There is no more dan- 
gerous notion among us than this. Officials are elected 
to rule according to the laws, whether the people like it or 
not. The people make their own laws by their represen- 
tatives sent to the legislature. Then they elect executive 

145 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and judicial officials to stand by these laws and carry them 
out, clamor or no clamor. 

George A. Swift, Esq., 

Salina, Kansas. 



Subway Financing 

February 21, 1913. 

Dear Sir: Your letter is at hand. You say you ob- 
ject to the city or the railroads going to the firm of Mor- 
gan & Co. for money. The city does not go to Morgan & 
Co. for money. When the city sells its bonds they are 
publicly advertised and go to the highest bidder. The bid- 
ders and purchasers are many. You can bid for and pur- 
chase even one bond if you wish. As to railroads, I am 
sure I do not know where they will get money to build 
and carry on their enterprises except of bankers. Where 
would you have them to go for it? To cobblers? We do 
not buy shoes of bankers or money of shoemakers. One 
of these subway companies borrows its money through 
Schiff & Co. ; the other through Morgan & Co. As a mat- 
ter of fact I am informed that 280 banks and individuals 
agree to take the bonds. I do not know that Morgan & 
Co. take any of them. Of course you may not understand 
that these operating companies cannot sign the contract 
with the city to put in and pay over to the city the vast 
sums which they are called upon to expend in building the 
subways without first having made a contract for the 
money with bankers, or people who deal in or lend money. 
They are not in a position to contract with the city until 
they first have a contract securing to them the money 
necessary. They cannot pick the money up off the street 
as they go along. I understood their bonds are being 
placed at 96. I should think that was a fairly good 
placement of them at this time. The city is in no way 
liable for these bonds. The city does not guarantee them. 
It has nothing to do with placing them. It is none of the 

146 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

city's concern where the companies borrow their money. 
The city takes note in the contract of only the actual 
amount of money which the companies put in. The 
amount actually paid over to the city and no more is 
funded. The interest on it is paid out of the profits of the 
railroads. Also a sinking fund sufficient to pay the 
bonds off inside of 40 years is put aside out of such profits. 
The city puts in one-half of the construction money, and 
the companies put in the other half. But they have to pay 
their half over to the city, because, as I suppose you know, 
the city builds the railroads by contracts publicly let. The 
companies do not build them. And of course you know 
the city owns the railroads from the start. The companies 
put in all of the money for the equipment of these rail- 
roads. The city contributes no part of that. I have 
already stated to you that the interest and sinking fund 
on the bonds of the company are paid out of the earnings. 
The interest and sinking fund on the city's money are 
paid in the same way. Then if there be any over-plus it 
is divided equally between the companies and the city. 
That is the contract. The operating lease is for a term 
of 49 years. But the contract contains a provision that 
at any time after the expiration of ten years the city may 
end the lease and take over the property and operate the 
railroads itself, or turn them over to a new operator, as 
it may see fit. I thought I would write you all this, be- 
cause you seem to be an intelligent man, and I hope you 
are desirous of knowing the facts. You ask whether the 
companies can go to any other bankers besides Morgan & 
Co. for money? Yes, they can go to any banker they 
see fit. Hundreds of bankers throughout this country are 
furnishing funds to railroads and other enterprises. An 
inteUigent man should not be bamboozled into believing 
that they have to go to Morgan & Co. I have already 
told you that one of these companies goes to Schiff & Co. 
You^say that the city has " only grafting, incompetent, or 
stupid pubhc officials to look after the pubhc interests." I 
am sorrv you think so. In fact, I do not believe you think 

147 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

so. You only try to make yourself think so. My asso- 
ciates in the city government are men of the highest 
honesty and intelligence. Of course I have to let you 
think anything you see fit of me. I might suggest that I 
am well known here, and have a record in the service of the 
public. B}^ that I am willing to be judged, however 
hard you may try to feel against me. It may be you 
look for that millenium when officials and bankers, and 
all useless people, shall be done away with. 

Henry J. Home, Esq., 

New York City. 



A Dramatic Criticism 

March 5, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Robinson: I am glad that the play (Dam- 
aged Goods) is to be given. Nevertheless I think it is 
over-wrought, and over-stated, and that it strikes many 
false notes. This is also true of the play " Maternity " 
by the same author. From my observation it is false from 
beginning to end. It exhibits alleged phases of human 
nature which must be verj^ rare indeed. The same is true 
of the other play in the volume edited by Bernard Shaw. 
The part of the play " Damaged Goods " which exhibits 
the woman going up and down and getting in relation 
with men simply to communicate her disease to them 
through deviltry or revenge, is false. I doubt if any 
woman in the world ever did such a thing. The wind-up 
of the play also seems to me to destroy the effect of the 
play in general. After bringing out the great point that 
the disease is a lingering one the play winds up by recon- 
ciling the husband and wife on the ground that all danger 
is now over. That part of the play is quite an encourage- 
ment to men given to lewd women. 

I am very certain that none of these plaj^s Avill survive 
as literature. There is verj'' little in them Avhich is true 

148 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

to nature, and much which is entirely false to nature and 
experience. 

Frederic H. Robinson, Esq., 

New York City. 

On Commission Government 

March G, 1913. 

Dear Sir: Y^our letter asks me to help you in a de- 
bate in your High School by giving you reasons for and 
against the proposition " that all cities having ten thousand 
or more population should have a commission form of 
government." In the first place, the phrase " commission 
form of government " is loose. It has no scientific or ac- 
curate meaning. What you mean is whether a city should 
be governed by a small council or a large one. Why, 
therefore, not say so in so many words? There is no city 
in this country being governed by a commission. When 
Galveston was destroyed by flood the legislature passed 
an act creating a commission and naming the five com- 
missioners to govern that city. That is the only case of a 
city being put in charge of a commission that I know of. 
But the courts declared the act unconstitutional and void. 
Some cities are ruled by a large elected council, called the 
Board of Aldermen, or the Common Council. That was 
formerly the case with all of the cities in this country. 
But of late years the tendency has been to substitute a 
small elected council or board for the large one. Some 
people inaccurately call this small council or board a com- 
mission. It is not a commission. 

I have no objection to give you my opinion in respect 
of whether the large council or the small one gets the bet- 
ter results in city government. I think the small one does. 
Large councils have proved to be failures in this country. 
Their membership is poor, whereas in the small council 
you can get a good membership. And the small council is 
also more workable. It is not subject to so many delays 
as the large council. 

149 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Here in this city we have a large council of 73 called 
the Board of Aldermen, and a small council of 8 called 
the Board of Estimate and Apportionment. This small 
council does substantially all the important council busi- 
ness of the city. The large council has been shorn of 
nearly all of its powers. They have been transferred to 
the small council. In a few years our large council will 
probably be done away with altogether. It is very hard 
to get anything out of it. There are some exceedingly 
good men in it, and others who are not so good, to say the 
least I ought to say. 

Lest you be too certain of small councils, let me remind 
you that the great Tweed frauds were committed in this 
city by a small board or council. And if you look about 
the country now I should not be surprised if you found 
dishonest and incompetent government here and there 
under small councils. No frame of government, however 
good, will secure good government. That depends upon 
the men put into office. Devise as you will, contrive as 
you will in forming instruments of government and laws, 
in the last analysis you have to trust somebody. Govern- 
ment depends more on men than on laws. Good men will 
give good government even with bad laws. As William 
Penn says in his preface to the frame of government which 
he gave to the colony of Pennsylvania, namely : 

" When all is said, there is hardly one frame of govern- 
ment in the world so ill designed by its first founders, that, 
in good hands, would not do well enough; and story tells 
us, the best, in ill ones, can do nothing that is great or 
good; witness the Jewish and Roman states. Govern- 
ments, like clocks, go from the motion men give them; 
and as governments are made and moved by men, so by 
them they are ruined too. Wherefore governments rather 
depend upon men, than men upon governments. Let men 
be good, and the government cannot be bad; if it be ill, 
they will cure it. But, if men be bad, let the government 
be never so good, they will endeavor to warp and spoil it 
to their turn." 

150 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

I hope my letter will help you in your debate, but you 
forgot to tell me which side you are on. 

Hubert Smith, Esq., 
Bartlesville High School, 

Dewey, Okla. 



A Rebuke 

March 25, 1913. 

Sir: Your letter of March 24th is at hand. I have no 
notion that it is written to me in good faith. In fact every 
one will perceive that it is a dishonest letter, and not writ- 
ten in good faith. Your statement that I have in any way 
opposed or embarrassed the District Attorney in the in- 
dictment and prosecution of offenders in the Police De- 
partment is known to you to be a falsehood, and know- 
ing it to be a falsehood you are quite capable of uttering 
it. I have unceasingly done all I could, in so far as I 
could spare the time, to further and assist the discovery of 
graft in the Police Department, and the prosecution of 
offenders therefor. This I have done ever since I came 
into the Mayor's office, and before, as you are very well 
aware. Hereafter when you wish to utter conscious false- 
hoods concerning me to the public, do not take the dis- 
honest method of writing a letter to me, when the letter 
is not meant in good faith at all. 

Rev. C. H. Parkhurst, 

Manhattan. 



The Recall 

March 26, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Mayer: You say that you are one of five 
judges of a recent debate on the subject of the recall, and 
that the judges being unable to agree they ask me to de- 
cide the question. Our terms of office throughout this 

151 



M AYOR GAYNOR^S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

country are so short that we can recall bad officials soon 
enough at the end of their terms by leaving them at home. 
We do not need to go to the turmoil and trouble of a recall 
by popular vote during the term. If officials commit any 
wrong in office we have ways of removing them already. 
And then, again, threat of the recall could be used to in- 
timidate officials and make them do what they would not 
do if left to exercise their sound judgment. Public 
officials are too much influenced by clamor now. If the 
recall existed, many more of them would be giving away 
to clamor than now. And I suppose you know from his- 
tory that clamor has seldom if ever been right. Clamor 
is no better now than it was when it sent Jesus to the Cross. 
It is the duty of all public officials to stand up against 
clamor. The worst kind of clamor is that incited by a rich 
demagogue. May I say to you that within two years cer- 
tain demagogues were demanding the recall of the Mayor 
of this city because he favored the subway system which 
has since been agreed upon and adopted with general ap- 
proval. How many people would now vote to recall him 
on that score? But at that time probably a great many 
would have voted to recall him. And so I decide against 
the recall. 

Leo K. Mayer, Esq., 

Brooklyn, N. Y. 



Recall of Judicial Decisions 

March 28, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Hubbard; I have your letter of March 
24th, askinff me to assist vou in a debate which is to take 
place between Georgetown College and the Kentucky 
State LTniversity, on the proposition that when an act of 
the legislature is declared void by the highest court, 20 
per cent, of the voters may require the court's decision to 
be submitted to a vote of the people, so that they may 
overrule the decision if they see fit, by their votes. This 

152 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

is what has come to be popularly called of late the recall 
of judicial decisions. I am not able to favor such a method. 
I do not think it should be adopted. We already have 
a method of nullifying or recalhng such decisions. We 
have practiced it all over this country since the beginning 
of our government. AVhen the courts declare an act of 
the legislature void for being unconstitutional, the method 
is to submit a constitutional amendment to a vote of the 
people to change the law so as to make the law as the 
people want it, instead of leaving it as the court decided 
it. This is and has always been a common thing among 
us. In this state we pass such constitutional amendments 
freely. Only a few years ago we passed five. There is 
one up to be voted on this year, namely, with regard to 
the Employers' LiabiHty statute which our highest court 
declared unconstitutional and void. No doubt the people 
will overrule that decision, or recall it, if you prefer that 
word. In a similar way, when the courts make a decision 
which does not involve any constitutional point, but only 
some ordinary legal question, if the people are not satis- 
fied with the decision, the legislature may change the law 
to conform to the enlightened will of the community. 
And the people are free to choose legislators to suit them. 
I think these ways of overruling or recalling decisions, 
i. e., by changing the law as declared by such decisions, 
to conform to the enlightened judgment of the com- 
munity, are much better than to submit each obnoxious 
decision to a vote of the people for approval or reversal. 
Indeed, I doubt if that method would be practical. In 
most cases something more would need to be done by w^ay 
of legislation than the mere upsetting of the decision. If 
it be thought that it is now too difficult to get constitu- 
tional amendments submitted to a vote of the people, the 
method ought to be made easier. In this state it is quite 
easily done from year to year, but in addition to that our 
constitution contains a requirement that it be submitted 
to revision every twenty years. 

I am enclosing you a speech which I made at Y^ale 

153 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

University last year, from which you may draw some 
material. 

Robert Hubbard, Esq., 

Georgetown, Ky. 



Ragbag Newspapers 

April 2, 1913. 

Dear Sir: Your letter of April 1st, quoting from a 
certain morning newspaper what it gives as a declaration 
of mine, that the foreigners here " Have as much right 
to ask us to change our flag as we have to prevent them 
from drinking liquor on Sunday," and rebuking me for 
this utterance, is at hand. You must be a very stupid 
man, or else very vicious, to beheve any such thing. Do 
you not know that that newspaper makes up such things 
from day to day? Does not everybody know that I never 
say anything to that newspaper at all? But let me ease 
your mind by saying to you that I never said what you 
attribute to me. Would it not be well for you to give up 
the ragbag, corrupt newspapers, and read decent news- 
papers? Do you not know we have several decent news- 
papers in this city? 

E. Hamilton, Esq., 

Brooklyn, N. Y 



r 



Commending the Police 

April 8, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Albertson : I am glad to receive your letter 
about the police. There is no better police force in the 
whole world. And the detective branch of it is recognized 
everywhere as the best in the world. The abuse heaped on 
the force for now over a year is wholly unmerited. There 
are a few grafters on the force. I have been driving them 

154 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



to the wall ever since I have been here. All the revelations 
that have been made are by criminals whom the police put 
out of business. I expected more revelations than we have 
had. If we had left these criminals alone there would have 
been no revelations. Every time we threaten a person 
running a house of debauchery or gambling now he threat- 
ens to go and disclose to the District Attorney. We tell 
him to go ahead — that is what we want him to do. 

Kcvr F. Albertson, Esq., 

Manhattan. 



What Would Jesus Do? 

April 14, 1913. 

Dear Sir: You tell me you have been elected a Jus- 
tice of the Peace at Oak Park, Illinois, and desire to ad- 
minister your office the same as Jesus would do if he were 
there instead of you. You ask for my advice. You say 
you believe the present system of fines for minor offenses 
is wrong in principle, for the reason that it " tends to 
increase crime and promote disrespect to law." You also 
say that the law allows you to collect fees for yourself. 
You ask if Jesus would assess such fines and collect such 
fees, if he were in your place. You seem to be a man who 
thinks himself wiser and better than the law and above 
the law. That kind of a man is the most dangerous that 
can be put into office, especially in a free country. The 
law is made by the representatives whom we elect to the 
legislature. Y^ou are elected a Justice of the Peace to 
accept the laws thus made, and carry them out. If you 
do not wish to do that you ought to resign. You think 
you are wiser and better than the law, but if you make 
inquiry you will probably find few people who are of that 
opinion. " What would Jesus do? " you ask me. If he 
accepted the office he would also accept the law as it is and 
administer it faithfully. He would not take the law into 

155 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

his owii bands. He would not assume to do as he hked. 
He would say, " I do not think this law is wise, but the 
the legislature made it, and I have to a])ide by it, and, prob- 
ably they are wiser about it than I am." And he would 
go on and administer the law as he found it. Indeed, that 
is the way he acted when he was on this earth. He abided 
by the law. He constantly quoted the law. Where he 
did not like the law, he advocated a change to something 
better. He attended the synagogue and taught the law 
there. It was the abuse and misuse of the law which he 
denounced. If you do not like the laws as they are in your 
locality, you ought to get yourself elected to the legisla- 
ture, and then work hard to change them. But as a judge, 
you must abide by the law. Are you unconscious of the 
fact that by your oath of office you have sworn to do so? 
Suppose every judge in this country, from the highest to 
the low^est, took it into his head to ignore the law, and 
decide cases to suit himself. What a v/oeful condition that 
would very soon put us all in. And yet you, a little Justice 
of the Peace out in Oak Park, Illinois, want to act in that 
way. As to your fees, neither Jesus nor any one else cares 
whether you collect them or not. 

Henry Neil, Esq., 

Justice of the Peace, 

Oak Park, 111. 



Segregating Virtue 

April 23, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Goodman: I am glad indeed that you are 
engaged in the work, and I hope we will be able to do 
something worth the while. 

The document submitted to me by Mr. Schoenfeld 
( Prettyfield ) is one of the most extraordinary that has 
ever come to my attention. I think I will have to write 
him a letter about it. It seems to be based largely on the 
notion that all that is necessary to do a thing is to pass 

15G 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

a law for it to be done. AVill he catch all the women and 
put them in these places ? And will he then stand guard 
and keep them there? Or does he think they will go there 
and stay there voluntarily? Ask him what he thinks of 
segregating virtue instead of vice. Would it not be an 
easier job? But we must not poke too much fun at him. 

Elias B. Goodman, Esq., 

New York City. 



Tom Paine 

May 14, 1913. 

Dear ISIr. Vanderweyde: Owing to other engage- 
ments I am not able to accept your invitation to speak at 
the Dedication of the Paine JMonument in New Rochelle 
on Memorial Day. One of the greatest perversions in 
history was the dissemination of the falsehood against 
Paine that he was an atheist. A few people fastened that 
upon him. But now he is emerging from that blight. No 
firmer believer in Almighty God ever lived. He was an 
infidel, in that he did not beheve all the essential tenets 
of the Christian religion. But that he was a disbeliever 
in Almighty God was a mere fabrication. 

W. M. Vanderweyde, Esq., 

New York City. 



Preface to the Police Manual of Laws and Ordinances 

Mav 17, 1913. 

To the Pohce Force : In this digest of laws and ordi- 
nances you w^ill see the word " arrest " frequently used. 
But you now all know that you do not arrest without a 
warrant for small offenses unless it is quite necessary to 
do so. You serve a " summons " instead as often as you 
can. A book of summonses will be given you with this 

157 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

digest. And remember you are not obliged to arrest (or 
summon) for every little offense. The law says you 
" may " arrest without a warrant for every misdemeanor 
committed in your sight. It does not say you " must." 
You must use your good judgment. In the case of little 
batteries, and rows, and the Hke, it most often suffices to 
send the offenders along about their business. And in 
case of ordinance violation, it also often suffices for you 
to admonish the offender that he will be arrested or sum- 
moned, if the violation continue. 

Stay on your post if possible. You should never leave 
your post with a prisoner unless it is necessary. Summon 
him or her instead if the offense be small. Sometimes the 
offender may be a stranger, and have no home or place of 
business. Then you may have to arrest. But not if the 
offense be trivial. Use your good discretion. 

To show how intelligently you are already acting 
along these lines, let me tell you that by using your good 
judgment in the way I have mentioned, and also resorting 
to the summons, you have already reduced the enormous 
number of arrests without a warrant made in the year 
before I became Mayor, namely, 235,168, down to 
132,923. And of the 235,168 boys, girls, men and women 
thus arbitrarily arrested and locked up in station houses 
in that year, 102,257 were promptly discharged by the 
magistrates as having been arrested for no cause or for 
too trivial cause. Did you ever think of the amount of 
humiliation, suffering and anguish caused by these un- 
necessary arrests, and the tendency they had to make 
criminals, especially of boys? You have done away with 
that barbarous condition in three years, and I thank you 
for it. And meanwhile, while petty politicians and cor- 
rupt newspapers have been trying to defame and degrade 
you, for their own ends, you have gradually worked out 
other great reforms. 

Remember that your chief business is to keep outward 
order and decency, and arrest real criminals, not good 
citizens guilty only of some small thing. 

158 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SP EECHES 

To an Inspired Genius 

May 22, 1913. 

Dear Sir: You let me know by your letter that you 
have extraordinary powers and are very anxious to do 
something great. And you ask for my advice. Do not 
try too hard to do something great. I advise you to begin 
with little things. Do little things. If you have some- 
thing to teach, teach it to two or three, or to those around 
you. Those who are waiting for some great occasion to 
do something great rarely do anything at all. Do what 
comes to your hand. Be simple. Perhaps your notion 
that you are able to do something great is a false one. 
Wherever you are do your simple duty first. If you do 
it well it will lead to larger things, and in that way you 
will grow, and it may be by experience become great, and 
then, if occasion offers you may do something great. But 
do not wait. I think it very improbable that you are 
inspired. 

Arthur D. Pickens, Esq., 

New York City. 



Books 

May 23, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Allen : I am very glad to comply with your 
request. All the book lovers I have known have been 
good-hearted and true. I sign the slips to be pasted in 
your " Epictetus " and " Intellectual Development of 
Europe " as you request. I cannot say that I have derived 
much from " Epictetus." Nor am I learned in that book. 
That I am is a mere newspaper statement. When I was 
running for Mayor, and lying newspaper proprietors were 
inventing every sort of lie concerning me, I made some 
allusion to it one night in one of my speeches and said: 
" That another saith of thee concerneth more him who 

159 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

saith it than it concerneth thee " — adding " as Epictetus 
says." That is all the justification the newspapers ever 
had for saying that I was a lover of Epictetus. But the 
"Intellectual Development of Europe" is one of the books 
which have had a distinct effect on me, and I am glad you 
rate it high also. Whatever I am it helped to form me. 
In my article in the " Independent " a few months ago on 
books and reading I gave a list of the 12 or 15 books which 
have impressed and benefited me most, and included 
therein the " Intellectual Development of Europe." Of 
course some of the scientific parts of that book have be- 
come obsolete, but as a whole it is still a great book and 
Avill always remain such. 

Charles Dexter Allen, Esq., 

Montclair, N. J. 



Bill Boards 

May 23, 1913. 

Dear Miss SchefF; Y'our letter is at hand. I am glad 
you are organizing a " City Beautiful Association," with 
the main object of doing away with the disgusting bill- 
boards which confront us all over the city. But you must 
remember that in order to carry out your purpose of 
censoring and regulating them we must get legislation. 
If the next Legislature be in the humor to give you such 
legislation be ready with a bill all prepared for them be- 
fore they are got out of it. You know the old Spanish 
proverb, " When presented with a heifer be ready with 
the rope." I am wilhng to help you draw the bill. Do 
not indulge the hope that the proprietors of these bill- 
boards will voluntarily permit you to censor or regulate 
their use. One of the biggest and nastiest of them all is 
owned by a newspaper proprietor of this city who pro- 
fesses to teach ethics and morals to us all. He is so good 
that he spends much time chastising me, especially when 
I happen to do something good — for he has a singular 

160 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEEC HES 

hate for good in any one except himself. No week passes 
that I do not receive a letter of complaint about the 
character of the advertisements on his great big nasty bill- 
hoard. It is in a fine residential district, and disgusting to 
the whole neighborhood. Of course this newspaper pro- 
prietor with his usual craft has the land on which this bill- 
board is erected in the name of a dummy owner. I will 
try to help you and your association as much as I can 
while I remain in office, and when I go out of office I sup- 
pose that even you will no longer think of me, much less 
ask for my help, or that I go and see you in " ^M'lle 
Modiste," or anything else. How do you like that? 

Miss Fritzi Scheff, 

New York City. 



Classical Music 

May 29, 1913. 

Dear Madam: I think it would be better for you to 
first talk with the Park Commissioner about the giving of 
free concerts of classical music, as my time just now is 
very much taken up. Also at this time the city has no 
money to spend for additional music. And then again I 
am not able to see that the city should furnish Grand 
Opera music. Only a few people are able to understand 
it. The great Rufus Choate w^as not able to understand 
it with all his refinement and fine nervous system — as 
fine as the finest stringed instrument. When he went to 
the opera he had to say to his niece: "My dear, please 
interpret to me the libretto, lest I dilate with the wrong 
emotion." It is with music as with poetry. Nearly all 
of us are able to enjoy simple music or a simple poem. 
But only a few among us are able to enjoy listening to 
Grand Opera music or the reading of Milton's " Paradise 
Lost." Music is the expression or voice of poetry — light 
music of light poetry, and heavy and intricate music of 
like poetry. When we read again Collins' delightful 

161 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

" Ode to the Passions " we fully realize this. Y^ou re- 
member how trippingly it begins — 

" When Music, heavenly maid, was young, 
While yet in early Greece she sung," etc., etc. 

Mrs. Henrietta Spader, 

Manhattan. 

Selfishness 

June 3, 1913. 

To the Honorable the Board of Aldermen : The habit 
of all selfish people, and esj^ecially if they be big and fat, 
is to take the end place on the seats of the summer cars 
which run crosswise of the car, and stick there, instead of 
moving along to the other end as other people get on the 
car. This causes great inconvenience. All those who 
come after these selfish people have to climb over their 
legs, and press by them as best they can. I would sug- 
gest to you to consider whether you should not pass an 
ordinance making this selfish practice a misdemeanor, and 
requiring those who enter cars with cross seats to move 
as far in as there is a vacant space to sit down. The self- 
ishness and hoggishness of some people in this matter is 
a distressing spectacle, to say nothing of the inconvenience 
which they cause, especially to mothers with little children. 

Netvspaper Eivaggera Hon s 

June 3, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Poole: I thank you for your thoughtful 
letter, and for enclosing me the editorial from the Jersey 
paper. The editor knows what he is talking about. There 
are a lot of people here who are thinking the same thing, in 
spite of our sensational press. This Jersey editor was not 
at all upset when he saw the flaring headlines in the New 
Y^ork newspaper, " New Y^ork's Amazing Record of Hold- 
ups." The amazing number disclosed was 687 in a year. 

162 



f 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND STKECIIES 

Probably the major part of this number was fictitious. 
But taking it all as true, it averaged less than two a day. 
When that daily average is compared to over five millions 
of resident people here, and hun.dreds of thousands of 
transients, including crooks who come here from all over 
the United States, it no longer seems amazing, ])ut small, 
and maybe amazing for its smallness. But that is the 
way our sensational newspapers in the City of New Y^ork 
defame the city. But the scamps have run their course. 
They are no longer able to say anything to hurt this 
citv. There is no more decorous or orderly city on the 
face of this earth than this city of New Y^ork. And that 
there are a few grafting policemen no longer damns this 
city in the eyes of sensible people. There will always be 
some of that kind, in a force of ten thousand men, but 
the number has been growing less and less for years. 

Pierce N. Poole, Esq., 

New York City. 



Books on Marriage and Sex 

June 4, 1913. 

Dear IMr. Clews: The new book of your daughter 
Mrs. Parsons which you were so good as to send me has 
afforded me much pleasure. I sat up late two nights to 
read it through. 1 could hardly lay it down. It is inter- 
esting from the first line to the last. Its title, " The Old- 
Fashioned Woman," does not give much if any hint to the 
contents. I think the sub-title, " Primitive Fancies about 
the Sex," is better. It gives a pretty good clue to the 
contents. The relation of the sexes will never become a 
tame subject. This book shows the way man has looked 
on woman, and woman on man, from the begimiing. The 
intimacies, the attractions and the antipathies of the sexes, 
one to the other, are all portrayed. I wish I had time to 
write a review of your daughter's former book, " The 
Family," and also of this her later book. I think it was 

163 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

five years ago that I read " The Family." And then I 
reread it twice. It gives all the literature and forms of 
marriage from the marriage of individuals to the wholesale 
marriage of one tribe by another. These two books con- 
sist of the most interesting and fascinating reading mat- 
ter that I know of. Please present my congratulations to 
Mrs. Parsons. She is a woman of talent. Her books 
will be widely read. 

Henry Clews, Esq., 

New York City. 



Condemnation Cornmissioners 

June 9, 1913. 

Sir: I am enclosing to you a letter from the Dock 
Commissioner. By all means let us bend every effort to 
have a respectable commission appointed by the court to 
condemn the property for the new long piers at 45th 
Street. It would be too bad to have a commission of little 
people appointed who would drool over the matter for 
months or years, and then soak the city for two or three 
times the value of the property. Will we ever get rid of 
that sort of business? The quality of commissioners ap- 
pointed to condemn land was better for a while, but of 
late it seems to me there has been a great falling off. Some 
of the Judges appoint excellent commissioners. Would 
that thev would all do so. 

Archibald R. Watson, Esq., 

Corporation Counsel. 

Advises the Governor Against Purring People 

June 10, 1913. 

Dear Governor Sulzer: I thank you for sending me 
your speeches and other literature with regard to the 
question of primaries. I could not help reading your 

164 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



speeches with sympathj\ Their directness and lucidity 
impressed me strongly. But since I have been ]\Iayor 
I have kept from meddling with matters outside of the 
city government, and on the whole I think it better that I 
should continue to do that. You know the many things 
I have to meet here, and if I mix myself up in state poli- 
tics my situation would be still harder than it is now. The 
partisan vileness down here is something dreadful. There 
are people here that purr around you and me, only to 
betray us at the first opportunity. I suppose you have 
already perceived that. They are scoundrels of the worst 
kind. They have not an honest hair in their heads. They 
are not men for you and me to associate with or have any- 
thing to do with. You have an honest purpose in view. 
They have not an honest thought. The better I do, or 
try to do, the better any head of a department here does, 
or tries to do, the more venomous become their attacks. 
They do not want anyone to do well except themselves. 
And they are incapable of doing anything worth the while. 
They have neither the length, the breadth nor the thick- 
ness to do it. 

Hon. William Sulzer, Governor, 

State of New York, 

Albany, N. Y. 



The Police Force 

June 12, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Cowl: I am glad you sent the message to 
Alderman Nicoll commending Commissioner Waldo for 
the way in which he has discharged his duties all through 
your district, namely the retail dry goods district. The 
whole town now perceives that Mr. Waldo is an honest 
man and has done no wi'ong thing. Most people have 
seen that all along, notwithstanding the investigators and 
the clamorers. They have stampeded nobody. I have felt 

165 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

safe Avith JMr. W^aidc^ because 1 knew that he was honest. 
Some come and tell me that it needs a thief to catch a thief, 
and they want another Byrnes, or another Devery, or some 
such person at the head of the police force. Out with such 
people. The investigators and the clamorers have not been 
able to put their finger on a single wrong thing that Mr. 
Waldo has done. And during all the noise he has stuck to 
his duty with the force under him like a man. He has not 
flinched once. Of course the scent and the cry of the whole 
pack has been pointed against me, and they wanted to 
make Waldo the victim. But they have miscarried. How 
pitifully little they all look to-day. All they are able to say 
is that a few grafters were found in the police force. And 
what of it? Did we not all know that there were some 
grafters in the force, and that there had been grafters there 
for more than a generation ? And are there not grafters in 
the London police force and in every police force? Are 
they not from time to time found out and convicted? But 
who caused the recent graft disclosures except JMr. Waldo? 
He closed up gambling houses and worse houses under the 
law of nuisance, on a legal basis which we established, with 
the result that the debased men and women proprietors, 
seeing that they were put permanently out of business, 
came forward and made disclosures of graft for twenty 
years back. The Commissioner caused these disclosures 
by the performance of his duties, and yet an attempt was 
made to raise a hue and cry against him on account of them 
as though he had done something wrong. The first was 
the case of Rosenthal. He opened in succession twelve 
gambling houses, and each one was promptly closed up, 
one after another, and when the last one was in the actual 
possession of the police, who stayed there daj^ and night, 
and he saw his occupation Avas gone, he revealed that a 
police lieutenant was his partner. The same was the case 
with Sipp and his beastly houses, and the equally beastly 
houses of the two women, Goode and Hertz. When they 
were put out of business they came forward with their stor- 
ies of graft, running back for a generation. They had cor- 

ICG 



MAYOR GAYNOR-S LETTERS AND SPE ECHES 

rupled policemen for tiiat length ol' time. And the I'ellow 
Purcell was also called to dellle this town with his ancient 
story. And a few days later he murdered his child and 
attempted to kill his wife. But there was no halt in the 
attempt to degrade the police force and this grand city. 
And these are the sources of all the revelations of graft. 
And now when the police continue to put such infamous 
places out of business, the proprietors shake their fingers 
and threaten to go and tell their tales, and they are told 
to go ahead and tell everything. Every one is now per- 
ceiving the truth. Not a wrong thing has been disclosed 
against Mr. Waldo. He is an earnest, hardworking man. 
I expect other revelations of graft and I hope they will 
come. We want to get at all the grafters. We have got 
rid of the old timers one after another. Of the nineteen 
inspectors that were there when I became Mayor only six 
remain. In one way and another we have edged them out. 
The young men who are coming up to take their places are 
the finest in the world. No bodv of men anvwhere, mili- 
tarv or civil, is selected so carefully and with such severe 
tests. They have to be of a certain height and weight and 
muscle, and their hearts and lungs and organs have to be 
perfect. And when they pass that examination, thej^ have 
to undergo a mental examination which excludes everyone 
not of good intelligence. When I saw 5,000 of these young- 
fellows swing by in the recent parade it made me tingle 
from head to foot. No such number of perfect men was 
ever seen in line before anywhere in this world. And all 
the while I kept saying to myself, " Just think of the 
way they have been outraged for a year by corrupt scamps 
and little pitiful investigators. They have been denounced 
in every way because there are a few grafters in the force, 
as though that was anything extraordinary. Every pro- 
fession and business calling has as large a percentage of 
grafters, if not larger, than exists in the police force." 

Clarkson Cowl, Esq., 

New York City. 

1G7 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

On Books and Reading 

(The following is an article published in The Independent. 
It bears the form of a sort of talk with another — a method often 
adopted by the Mayor in dictating matter.) 

And so you wish to visit me here in my library and get 
from me an article on libraries, and books, and reading, 
and learned men and bookish men, and bookshops, and so 
on. It is a large subject. I can only skim over it with 
an every day recollection. There are so many public 
libraries here now that people do not need to buy books. 
And these libraries have all kinds of books, even rare and 
curious ones. The number of familiar old bookshops 
diminished as these public libraries grew. According to 
Professor Mahaffy, there was a bookshop in ancient 
Athens^ I never think of the burning of the great library 
of Alexandria without a pang. It is said that when con- 
sulted by his general who had captured that city in the 
seventh century the Arabian Caliph Omar said that if 
the books of the library contained only what was in the 
Koran they were superfluous, if anything else they were 
heretical, and that therefore in either case they should be 
burned. This story was invented long afterwards. The 
Arabians were a learned people. They were not burners 
of books. Every department of science was enriched by 
their learned men. Western civilization owes them much. 
The very numerals in which we keep our accounts we got 
from them. Libraries preserve errors as well as truths. 
I suppose there are as many errors as truths in them. The 
errors as well as the truths of each age are stored in books. 
That written down in books as the height of wisdom in one 
age often becomes the height of folly in the next. This 
is so in science, in theology, and in everything. And so 
books lead us into many false paths unless we are wary. 
I suppose we all know a few very wise people who are un- 
able to read at all. There is a large amount of innate 
knowledge in all of us. It develops with the growth of our 
minds and bodies from birth. It is the same with all 

168 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

animals. Who taught the ant to bite every grain of corn 
she carries into her hill lest it take root and grow? She 
did not read it in any book. But I fear I am wandering 
away from what you want. Reading, you say? Read- 
ing is to no purpose without thinking, except for pastime 
or amusement. Reading is thinking with the head of 
another person instead of your own. One who reads 
without thinking gradually fritters away his power of 
thinking. Reading may be an aid, but to possess a 
thought we have to work it out ourselves, and make it a 
part of ourselves. The self -thinker is equipped for action. 
He who reads without thinking is not. When called upon 
for action he is all the while trying to recollect the words 
or thoughts of others which he has read, and to shape his 
words or acts thereto. No one ever did a considerable 
work in the world who was not a self -thinker. Too much 
reading weakens the judgment. What we absorb by re- 
flection becomes part and parcel of our mental processes 
and comes forth spontaneously for use when the mind 
enters the society of facts or ideas to which it belongs. 
Mere feats of memory are of little or no use. To be able 
to remember and repeat many names, or verses, or the 
like, may be hkened to the physical feats or tricks of acro- 
bats. They excite the same attention by their novelty, 
and are alike of little worth. The Roman General who 
is said to have been able to repeat the names of all of his 
soldiers seems to have had no other distinction. Absorp- 
tion, not verbal memory, forms judgment. There was 
for a long time in this country a distrust of scholarly and 
bookish men in respect of business or public affairs. We 
have not altogether got over it yet. They were called 
" literary fellers." But history shows that such men have 
given the best government and achieved the best results 
when given the opportunity. We elected a learned, 
literary and bookish man President of the United States 
the other day in Woodrow Wilson. Such men acquit 
themselves well when called into government. But that 
happens only to a few. It is the same in general business 

169 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and affairs. Men who make themselves learned in a cer- 
tain calling or business bv means of studv excel the men 
of long experience but without learning. Of the great 
rulers who were learned it is easy to cite instances. Alex- 
ander the Great was a student, philosopher and learned 
man. He possessed all the learning of his time. Aris- 
totle was his tutor, and he served for a time as his 
amanuensis. When he went into Asia on his great mili- 
tary expedition he took a retinue of learned men with him. 
Wherever he went he sought out the learned men and 
philosophers and conversed with them. He called to see 
Diogenes in his tub at Corinth, and after conversing with 
him said as he turned away: " Were I not Alexander I 
would wish to be Diogenes." Caesar was also a man of 
learning, an orator, and given to philosophy. He wrote 
a book of apothegms which is unfortunately lost. The 
philosophical mind has always been prone to express 
itself in parable, or aphorism or fable. As an orator he 
was capable of holding his own against Cicero. His 
" Commentaries " have not been excelled as a model of 
pregnant narrative. At the same time he could be nimble 
and jocose of wit, as when being hailed as king by some 
of the pojiulace he responded that his name was not King 
but Caesar — King being a sur-name w^ith the Romans as 
with us. The emperor Marcus Aurelius left his philo- 
sophical thoughts in writing. He seems never to have 
had any desire or intention of j)ublishing them. In the 
midst of camps and great affairs he mused over them and 
wrote them down on tablets as a solace to his own soul. 
He had a true conception of God and the universe. As I 
finished reading his book again not long ago I could not 
help writing on the flyleaf as follows: " Consider that 
the great universe, of which thou art only a trivial speck, 
is governed by fixed laws, and be therefore content in all 
things, and especially to die at any time, and abide God's 
will of thee, whether of individual future life, or dissolu- 
tion into universal mind and matter." That is the sum 
and substance of what his mind leaves other minds preg- 

170 



MAYOR GAYNOirs LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



iiant of. Napoleon was one ol' the greatest readers oi' 
his time and nuieh given to the society of learned men. 
He took a large body of scientific and learned men along 
with him in his military expedition to Egypt. When he 
came back he dressed in the garb of the academicians for 
a time and consorted with men of learning. He read in 
his coach, as he traveled on his campaigns, and if a book 
impressed liim as w^orthless he threw it out of the window. 
It is said his route could be traced by the litter of books 
along the roadside. But I suppose this is exaggeration. 
Lord Rosebery in his book on Napoleon says that he had 
a library of 800 volumes on the field of Waterloo. Did 
you ever hear of a more astonishing thing? You cannot 
help doubting it, you say. Nor can I. But it is true that 
he carried many books about with him, and had special 
editions printed and bound for his own library. 
Frederick the Great was a literary man. He kept Vol- 
taire, the greatest thinker and literary genius of that age, 
by him for a time to commune with him over poetry, phil- 
osophy and learning. Do you not think the minds of 
these two men were much alike? No? Well, it has always 
seemed so to me. Thej^ were each what some call queer, 
jealous of each other, and spat and quarreled like cats. 
Queen Elizabeth was learned to a singular and rare de- 
gree. To the end of her long life she had set hours for 
study and reflection. She was fond of men of learning 
and philosophy. There never seems to have been any 
objection to literary men in public affairs or as statesmen 
in Great Britain. England presents a long list of literary 
men w^ho came to eminence in public affairs, as Burke, 
Disraeli, Gladstone, and I hope you will let me add Bal- 
four. His book, " Foundations of Belief," has been taken 
too little note of. Nor should the present Churchill be 
omitted. Gladstone was the most bookish of English 
statesmen. He thrust his spoon into every dish. But he 
was superficial. He will not survive either as orator or 
writer. He was a rhetorician, but not an orator. Seldom 
have the rhetorician and the orator united in the same per- 

171 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



son. Most of the world's orators have been only plain, 
some of them poor, speakers. It is hard to believe that 
Demosthenes being asked for the first, then the second, 
and then the third requisites of an orator, answered each 
time " action." Instead of being a requisite, action can 
be dispensed with. The three requisites for an orator are, 
first, the man (an honest man with a purpose), second, a 
message to deliver (something to say), and last and least, 
the way of saying it. Some orators have been stutterers. 
Lord Bacon says Moses stuttered. Rhetoricians have 
always been distrusted as dishonest. Orators never. The 
Roman Republic banished the rhetoricians several times. 
How would it do for us to do the like? The name of Lord 
Bacon cannot be omitted when learned men and philoso- 
phers who were eminent in public affairs are mentioned. 
His writings are one of the world's marvels. It is seldom 
so prodigious a mind has ever been conferred on any of 
the sons of men. It might not be easy to give a list of 
literary men among Irish statesmen. A few of them 
were orators. Parnell does not seem to have read any- 
thing. He was the bookless statesman. He was ignorant 
even of Irish history. And he was neither rhetorician nor 
orator. We had philosophers and literary men in pub- 
lic affairs in this country at the beginning, more than later 
on. Benjamin Franklin stands out incomparable at the 
head of them all. Jefferson was a great student as the 
writings he left after him attest. He was also a phil- 
osopher. Hamilton does not seem to have had even a 
touch of philosophy, but in political economy, in history, 
and in the art of government was the ablest man of his 
time in all the world. Nearly all of the men developed by 
the French Revolution were learned or literary men. The 
only exception I can think of at this moment is the brewer 
Santerre, whose name survives only because he had a voice 
which could be heard all over Saint- Antoine, and, as 1 
think some say, half way out to Saint-Cloud. We find 
Robespierre at the age of nineteen corresponding with 
Benjamin Franklin on a scientific topic. Even Marat 

172 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

was an educated and scientific man. He was an eminent 
and fashionable physician in Soho Square, London, for 
ten years. He returned to France to participate in the 
French revolution. Carlyle tries to damn him by calling 
him " horse-leech." He also pictures him as unclean, 
even nasty, in his person. He hints even worse than he 
says. Y'ou may know what I mean if you read Gibbon's 
Latin footnote concerning the same thing said of the Em- 
peror Julian. But, all the same, Marat was murdered 
while in his bath tub in his own home — rather conclusive 
proof that he was of cleanly personal habit. At the head 
of the Champlain delegation which recently came over 
here from France was Hanotaux, formerly head of the 
French Foreign Office. He is a bookish and literary man. 
He is often seen in the bookshops of Paris, or groping 
along the long row of little book stalls on the opposite 
side of the Seine — more than a thousand in number. The 
late Jolin Hay in this country was also the better equipped 
as Secretary of State by his literary accomplisliments. 
But I must not run on this way further. You want me to 
say something about my own library and books and read- 
ing? I would rather pass that over. I have collected 
my books one by one. As I w^anted a book I bought it. 
In that way a library grows fast enough and you have the 
books you want. And your library is part of you all the 
time. My advice is not to buy a whole library at once. 
Yes, I have spent some time in the old bookshops of New 
York. They are now, alas, nearly all passed away. I 
saw men in them who have since come to eminence. It 
would serve no purpose to enumerate the names of these 
old bookshops. You could get any sort of book at Leg- 
gatt's. One of the last of them was Miller's in Nassau 
street. How he liked to talk with you about books, and 
what infinite trouble he would take to get a book for you. 
One day I went in and asked him for " Goschen on Ex- 
change." He scratched his head and said he did not have 
it, but would get it and send it to me next day. After 
three days I got a letter from him that there was not a 

173 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

copy of it to be found in the city of New York, and that 
he had sent to England for it. I had recently heard the 
debate in the British Parliament in 1893 on the closing of 
the Indian mint to the coinage of silver, and the speech of 
Balfour on bimetalism, and had bought and read the best 
books on that subject. I then wanted to read the lead- 
ing books on exchange, as the growing disparity between 
gold and silver was dislocating the international exchanges 
of the world. I mention this incident as it made me doubt- 
ful of following the lead of our bankers and financiers and 
business men here on these subjects, then much rife among 
us, for if they were students thereof the standard books 
treating of them would have been for sale here. By the 
way, Goschen is an example of how a man of learning on 
any subject may come to the front in public affairs in 
England. The appearance of his book on exchange 
caused him to be made Chancellor of the Exchequer over 
the heads of others, at a bound — per saltum, as the phrase 
is. Uncut editions are annoying to those who frequent 
bookshops. And the " expurgated edition " — what shall 
I say of that? Just think of an expurgated edition of 
Rabelais. I picked one up in a bookshop in London some 
years ago. I think it had a very short sale. What places 
of infinite solace the old bookshops were. Y^ou ask me to 
give a list of ten or fifteen of the greatest books. I would 
rather not try to do that. But I have no ob j ection to giv- 
ing j^ou a list of the books which have affected or shaped 
me the most. Thev are as follows: The Bible, Euclid, 
Shakespeare, Hume's History of England (especially the 
notes). Homer's Iliad, Milton ("Paradise Lost"), 
Cervantes ("Don Quixote"), Rabelais, "Gil Bias," 
Franklin's Autobiography and Letters, Plutarch's Lives, 
The Autobiography of Benvenuto Cellini, Gibbon's " De- 
cline and Fall of the Roman Empire," Adam Smith's 
" Wealth of Nations," and Bacon's Works. I should add 
the leading books which deal with what I may call the phil- 
osophy of history, such as Draper's " Intellectual De- 
velopment of Europe," Lecky's " History of European 

174 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Morals," Buckle's " History of Civilization " and the late 
Emil Reich's " Success Among Nations." The " Imita- 
tion of Christ," filled with religious philosophy line after 
line, should not he omitted. More copies of it have heen 
read in the Christian world than of any other book save 
the Bible. It has soothed the hearts of more than forty 
generations of Christians. The author of it is not known, 
with certainty. Protestants and Catholics claim it and 
read it alike. The Bible is incomparably the greatest book 
of all. The philosophy, the poetry, the imagery, the ele- 
vation of thought, of the Old Testament have never been 
approached. No one has since come into the world 
capable of writing the Twenty-third Psalm, for instance. 
By the way, Shakespeare was born on the day- Cervantes 
died, wasn't he? Some of the commentators on Shakes- 
peare say that the word " hand-saw " in Hamlet is a 
copyist's error for " hernsaw," some sort of a bird. It oc- 
curs in the passage " I know a hawk from a handsaw." 
But here is the same thing in " Don Quixote," namely, 
" There is some difference between a hawk and a hand- 
saw." The most jaunty and nimble piece of narrative in 
our language, if not in any other, is Lord Bacon's " New 
Atlantis." Just read it and see. To brins; vour style 
down from stilts, and make it easy and plain, read New- 
man's " Apologia." We must not fail to mention Bur- 
ton's " Anatomy of Melancholy," which is the greatest 
collection of curious learning to be found in any book, 
ancient or modern. It is a marvel of learning and re- 
search. The Baconians claim that Bacon wrote it as well 
as the Shakespeare plays. They say they trace his cypher 
through it. I hope you will not think I am loquacious if 
I tell you how I once convinced three of my four associates 
when I Avas a Justice of the Appellate Division of the Su- 
preme Court by citing Burton's " Anatomy of jNIelan- 
choly " as an authority. It was a divorce case against a 
man. The proof showed that he met the woman at the 
railroad station, that they came together in a hack with 
their baggage to the hotel, that the man registered them 

175 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

as man and wife, and that they went to the bedroom as- 
signed to them. One of the judges wrote an opinion 
that this evidence was not sufficient. I wrote an opinion 
that the legal inference of misconduct could and should be 
drawn from it, that they did not go there to say their 
prayers, and cited that passage of the " Anatomy of Mel- 
ancholy " which says of a man under such conditions, 
" It is presumed he saith not a paternoster." The case 
is known as the " Paternoster case." Now we cannot keep 
on this way, and maybe we might as well stop here. We 
have looked all along the shelves, and you see that some 
of my books are below the mark. If they had been in Don 
Quixote's library when his books were put on trial by the 
curate and the barber, after he got home from his first 
sally and was put to bed by his housekeeper and nurse, I 
am quite certain they would have been burned up in the 
same heap with the foolish books they condemned and 
committed to the flames. The comparatively few books 
which were printed in the first century or less after the art 
of printing was discovered are called the " Incunabula." 
The images of the minds of writers are preserved forever 
in their books, while images of the body are lost after a 
few ages. I am all the time wondering if in the excava- 
tions of houses at Pompeii and other places they will not 
finally discover the lost books of Livy. Yes, artistically 
boimd books are great sources of pleasure. I have not 
talked with anyone on that subject since the death of the 
late William Matthews. Pie had a choice collection of ex- 
quisitely bound books. As good an authority as I know 
on that subject, and particularly on inlaid books, is Mr. 
Daniel Treadwell, who still survives among us at a fine 
old age. How do I read? If the book be worth while, 
always pencil in hand. Many of my books are spoiled in 
that way. Just look at them. Yes, I often copy into 
notebooks the passages I mark. See this passage marked 
in the Odyssey — how Ulysses in his wanderings sighed to 
see again " the smoke rising from the hearths of his native 
land." And this noted on the margin, that " When he es- 

176 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTP^RS AND SPEECHES 

caped from the den of Cyclops he did not go back for his 
cap and belt." He was out of danger and knew enough 
to stay there, unlike some other people. There are a large 
number of proverbs and wise maxims in " Don Quixote " 
— more than in any other book I can now think of save the 
Bible. See this curious one I have marked: " Between 
the yea and the nay of a woman I would not undertake 
to thrust the point of a needle." And here is this 
marked: " The mountains breed learned men, and phil- 
osophers are to be found in the huts of shepherds." But 
we cannot go into this. I have several times thought of 
publishing a full collection of them. 

The Parks 

June 12, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Davis: I read your booklet on the parks 
through last night, and derived much profit and satisfac- 
tion from it. It is the best statement on the subject that 
exists, I think. I notice that it was written in 1897, which 
accounts for the parks of three boroughs being left out. 
I only wish you had the time to write a similar paper with 
regard to the parks in those three boroughs. 

There is no city in the world, I think, which has so 
many natural parks and breathing places. I have some- 
times thought we could get along without our large parks, 
on account of the natural places for recreation and breath- 
ing which we have. The Hudson River, the Bay, Coney 
Island, Rockaway, Long Island Sound, and the shores 
of these waters, not to mention others, are all natural 
parks. I suppose one hundred people go to these places 
to one that goes into our large parks. 

I have sometimes thought that the Bronx Parks were 
too large. It is a long walk to get into them. Would it 
not be better to have smaller parks? 

I think that Prospect Park is the most beautiful park 
in the whole city. When I consider that park, and the 
continuation of it by the splendid driveway to the ocean, 

177 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

I think there is nothing to equal it in the world. I have 
seen nothing to equal it. And then its approach by the 
great Eastern Parkway is also grand. And at its prin- 
cipal entrance is one of the noblest arches in the world. 

Gherardi Davis, Esq., 

New York. 



Tolstoy and Henry George 

June 12, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Bernstein: I thank you very much for the 
copy of your book, " With JNIaster Minds." It was in- 
tensely interesting to me, and I could not lay it down 
until I had finished it. You portray Metchnikoff with 
much more simplicity and homeliness of character than I 
had any idea he possessed. I had formed an entirely dif- 
ferent opinion of his personality from his brilliant scien- 
tific writings. Count Witte has always been a fascinating 
subject to me. Your article still leaves that impression 
on my mind undiminished. He was a very brilliant man. 
The way he handled himself as the Peace Representative 
of Russia at Portsmouth has rarely been equalled in 
diplomacy. From what you disclose, he was evidently 
backed up by his government. Notwithstanding the 
pressure brought to bear from this country, as disclosed 
by the despatches which you print, the government of the 
Czar never flinched, but stood on the proposition that if 
Japan wanted to make peace without asking for an in- 
demnity, peace would be made, and that otherwise the 
war might go right on. It seems that Witte was not 
bluffing at all, but meant just what he said. I suppose I 
ought not to say it, but I was never satisfied with Tolstoy, 
and after reading your chapter on him I am still in the 
same frame of mind. He was never able to see that 
Shakespeare was above the ordinary, or worth while. 
Just think of that. Is it not proof that his own mind was 
not of full stature? I have never been able to see that he 

ITS 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SrEE C H E S 

had any settled philosophy. It always seemed to me that 
he was a man of generalities, and, as you know, error 
lurks in generalities. He had no fixed principles. Nor 
had he any coherent philosophy. Nor did he have even 
an ordinary understanding of economical matters. He 
stated to you, as he often stated to others, that the Henry 
George theory of taxation put into practice would give 
the Russian peasant farmers free use of the soil. I have 
never been able to see how he spelled that out. I do not 
think he understood the Henry George theory. Henry 
George never saw any such thing in his theory. Put in 
practice it might help the Russian small farmer, the same 
as all tenants, a little. The Henry George theory is to 
value the bare land, i. e., the land without the buildings 
and improvements, separately, and put a tax thereon 
equal to the ground rent, and thereby absorb the entire 
ground rent into the public treasury, instead of having 
such ground rent kept by the proprietor or landlord, as 
now. That would limit him to collecting and retaining 
for himself only the rent for the buildings and improve- 
ments. Of course he would have to collect all the rent, 
but the ground rent he would have to pay over to the gov- 
ernment as taxes. Under this system the tenant would 
have to pay the very same amount of rent, namely, rent 
for both land and improvements. That the landlord 
would have to pay the ground rent over to the govern- 
ment would not help the tenant, except in so far as it 
might benefit the whole community. And this metliod of 
taxation would help the whole community, except the 
landlords, by reducing or doing away with taxes on prop- 
erty other tiian the bare land. Henry George contended 
that these ground rents taken as taxes would prove to be 
sufficient to pay all the expenses of government, so that 
all other taxes could be done away with. Whether this 
would prove true or not, it is true that the amount of these 
ground rents would lessen other taxes to that extent, and 
in that way tlie tenants would be benefited to some ex- 
tent, namely, like the rest of the community. I do not 

170 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

see how tenants would be benefited any further than that. 
Tolstoy in his enthusiasm very often, or most of the time, 
had, it seems to me, a very wrong notion of things. He 
does not seem to have studied or understood anything 
deeply, unless the human heart, and I think he was very 
often in a state of exaggeration in that respect. His esti- 
mate of men and of literature was very much at fault. 
Just think of him rating Tucker, of Boston, the head of 
the anarchists in this country, as a great writer. I do not 
see any signs of greatness in anything that Tucker wrote. 
Think of Tucker compared with Shakespeare! 

But my intention was to express my thanks to you 
for your book, and not to go into a discussion of it or of 
the men you portray. 

Herman Bernstein, Esq., 

New York City. 

Literature of Weights and Measures 

June 17, 1913. 

Dear Dr. Kunz: Mr. Spencer has shown me your let- 
ter of June 12th commending the adoption of the New 
International Metric Carat of 200 milligrams by the 
Bureau of Weights and Measures of this city for the 
measure of weight of precious gems. It does me good 
to have you take notice of that official act. The great work 
of securing uniform and honest weights and measures for 
this city, which was begun very soon after I came into 
the office of Mayor, and has been continued ever since, 
is now almost complete. You would know that without 
my saying so, since we have got as far as establishing a 
standard method of weighing precious gems. The work 
has been an intensely interesting one to me. Some years 
ago I read the exquisite report of John Quincy Adams to 
the Senate of the United States on weights and measures. 
The subject fascinated me, and I read other literature on 
the same subject. So that when I became Mayor I was 

180 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

prepared to take up the matter and do away with the 
frightful dishonesty in weights and measures which pre- 
vailed all over this city. And you know how the Bureau 
of Weights and Measures was then officered and manned, 
and what they were doing there, or not doing, rather. 
From the earhest times one of the first acts of govern- 
ment has heen to establish honest and just standards of 
weights and measures. You find much on the subject in 
ancient literature. It recurs again and again in the Old 
Testament. " A false balance is an abomination to the 
Lord; but a just weight is His delight," as we read in 
Proverbs (11 — ^1). It has a literature all its own. The 
work of the Department of Weights and Measures here 
during the last three-and-a-half years is now being copied 
not only all over this State but all over this country. 

Dr. George F. Kunz, 

Manhattan. 



Arresting Children 

June 17, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Collins: I am most glad to receive your 
letter. It encourages me to continue my efforts to teach 
the police not to arrest children unnecessarily, and bring 
them into court, or any one else, for that matter. But 
especially children should not be brought into court under 
arrest unless it be absolutely necessary. Nothing has 
such a tendency to make a boy a criminal as to arrest him 
and bring him into court, and of all things to lock him up. 
When he has had that experience once or twice or three 
times, he is quite certain to become a criminal. I have 
pretty well done away with all that sort of thing in the 
city of New York. I have been teaching the police not 
to make such arrests, and not to make any arrests unless 
necessarj^ during all this clamor against them which has 
been going on. I enclose to you the preface v/hich I re- 
cently wrote to the new digest of laws and ordinances 

181 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

which was prepared for the pohce. These reforms can 
be worked out only by constant attention. Y^ou cannot do 
them all at once. I have tried to do them little by little, 
teaching the 10,000 men on the force with a spoon, as it 
were. They had been so long taught to arrest everybody, 
including children, whom they saw committing trifles, that 
the abuse could not be abated except by patience and time. 
I would that there were more people in this city who under- 
stood this thing as you do. But I think all of oin- people 
are now coming to see what we have been doing in the 
Police Department. By doing away with these petty and 
unnecessary arrests, I have diminished the number of ar- 
rests in this city over 100,000 a year. A man of your ex- 
perience can tell how much suffering, how much anguish, 
how much provocation to a criminal life was prevented 
thereby. 

John C. Collins, Esq., 

New Haven, Conn. 



Lincoln 

June 17, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Cain: Your interesting letter of June 16th 
is at hand. But you must not compare me to Lincoln. 
That is too much. I do not deserve it. It is true that dur- 
ing the latter half of his first term, and especially at the 
end thereof, all the dogs, as you put it, were barking and 
snapping at him. But let us not call them dogs. They 
were human beings, with all the meanness, all the vanities, 
that belong to human nature. We are all just as God 
made us, only some of us a great deal worse, as the old 
proverb says. I believe every newspaper in the City of 
New Y^ork denounced Lincoln as inefficient, and even in- 
competent, and declared that he should not be renomi- 
nated, and could not be re-elected. He was blamed for 
every fraudulent army contract, for every grafter, for 
every blunder of his Generals in the field, for everything 

1S2 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



that happened. His biographers unite in telhng us the 
keenness of his suffering. The leaders of his party wanted 
to get rid of him. Each of them thought he was a greater 
man than '' old Abe," and thev did not hesitate to tell 
their friends so. They even said he was an old fool and 
a buffoon. But he had more philosophy in his little finger 
than all of them had in all of their b(xlies and brains put 
together. And the people knew it. And they renomi- 
nated him and overwhelmingly elected him. After he was 
renominated those who ridiculed and decried him further 
nagged, fretted and humiliated him by forming a national 
committee to ask him to withdraw so as to save the wreck 
which would follow his defeat. This is all matter of his- 
tory. But it is not my case as you want me to think. I 
am not to be compared to Lincoln, simplj^ because I am 
howled at and abused by newspaper proprietors — by the 
two miserable little Pulitzers of the World, for instance. 
Of course all the little Pulitzers of that day howled at 
and ridiculed Lincoln, and did all they could to thwart 
him. But the " big " newspaper proprietors and editors 
did the same. All I can claim for myself is that I am 
just a plodder, and have plodded along as w^ell as I could. 
I know that I have not been able to do much, but at the 
same time I know that I have done the best I could. I 
have had a pretty tough time of it, but I have borne it the 
best I could. Except for the feelings of my family I 
would be willing to bear anything. The very worst would 
not cost me a moment's sleep or i)ain. 

Jewett P. Cain, Esq., 

New York City. 

Segregation of Vice 

June 19, 1913. 

Dear Sir: Your letter of June 18th is at hand. You 
ask me about several questions dealing with the social evil. 
You will find that in previous letters of mine which have 

183 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

been published I have answered all your questions. I have 
often said the method of breaking into houses without war- 
rants enabled the police to collect graft. I have been say- 
ing it for ten years. Do you not know that perfectly 
well? You ask me whether it would not be better to segre- 
gate the evil. How would you do it? It is very easy to 
mark off a district by law or ordinance. But how would 
you get the women to go there and stay there? Will you 
undertake the job to catch them and bring them into that 
district? And after you get them there, who will keep 
them there? And if you could get and keep them there 
do you suppose that the men would go there when every- 
body would be pointing at them and laughing at them for 
going into that district? You ask me whether it would not 
be better to license such women? No, sir, I do not be- 
lieve in licensing vice. And you ask whether the women 
should not be inspected. How could you find them to in- 
spect them? If there were a law for such inspections how 
many out of the whole number would come forward for 
inspection? And if they did not come forward how do 
you think they could be found? But I cannot cover the 
whole matter with you. I say this much only to ask you 
to think a little about the thing. It is easy to pass laws 
and ordinances, and to talk and say this ought to be so 
and that ought to be so, but the doing of it is another 
thing. No law should be passed which is not enforceable. 

B. S. Barrett, Esq., 

Brooklyn. 

Clamor and the Administration of Justice 

June 26, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Stearns: I thank you very much for your 
letter. The district attorneys and certain judges over 
here in the county of New York have for years been re- 
sponding to newspaper clamor and framing up indict- 
ments against innocent persons, as in the case of Hyde, 
which you mention. It is so atrocious that one can hardly 

184 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

realize that such a thing could exist, but it does exist here. 
It has gone on for years in answer to periodical corrupt 
newspaper clamor. And those who do it do it to obtain 
popularity. But instead of obtaining popularity they 
have always ruined themselves in the estimation of all in- 
telligent and just minds, and in the end it is always the 
estimation of the community at large. The people of 
this country will not stand for any such business. I sup- 
pose you know we have four counties here in the city of 
New York, each with its own district attorney, grand 
juries, and courts. This practice of framing up criminal 
cases exists only here in the county of New York. In the 
other three counties, namely. Kings, Queens, and Rich- 
mond, no such thing has ever happened or could happen. 
In those counties you could not get a grand jury together 
which would permit itself to be led by the nose by the 
district attorney or the judge to find such an indictment. 
Over here the district attorney and the judge tell the grand 
juries that they are their legal advisers and that they must 
do as they advise. It is a falsehood. There is no such law. 
On the contrary, while the grand jury has to listen to their 
advice, it is then the dut};^ and prerogative of the grand 
jurors to do as their judgment dictates. They cannot 
be required or forced by any advice to find an indictment. 
That in the end is for them to say in their sound judg- 
ment and discretion. The grand jury which indicted 
Hyde was worked on for two months before it could be 
induced by a bare majority of one to indict him. The in- 
dictment stated no criminal offense, there was no evidence 
of any criminal offense, and there was no criminal offense. 
So that when it got to the appeal judges they did not 
merely reverse the conviction, but they said that there was 
no offense at all in the whole matter, and pitched the 
whole thing out of the courts. Indeed, they said that what 
Hj'de did it was his duty to do. Just think of a district 
attorney and a judge who would under such circumstances 
cater to newspaper clamor and dictation even to the con- 
viction of a man innocent of any criminal offense what- 

185 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

ever. To do justice to all of our other judges hereabouts 
every one of them said that there was no offense. But 
those engaged in the business thought they would make 
themselves popular by conforming to the clamor of cer- 
tain corrupt newspaper proprietors who are supposed to 
have much power here but in fact have none. Such a con- 
dition is dangerous to the liberties of every one. All that 
Chamberlain Hvde did was to ask several banks who had 
deposits of city money to make loans to the Carnegie 
Trust Companj^ in order to tide that company over ditB- 
culties, at the same time promising meanwhile to leave 
such city deposits with them. The city had eight hundred 
thousand dollars deposited in the Carnegie Trust Com- 
pany, and it was the duty of the Chamberlain to do what 
he could to sustain that bank in order to save the city's 
mone5\ The Secretary of the United States Treasury 
does this every time there is trouble in Wall Street. He 
deposits money with certain banks with the understanding 
that at his request they must sustain other banks by loans. 
Hyde did not ask any bank to make a loan without se- 
curity. On the contrary, all the loans were made on abso- 
lute security, so that they were paid at once as they be- 
came due. Just think of a man being convicted under 
such circumstances as that. He had the right to draw the 
city's deposits out of any banks as he saw fit, and deposit 
the same Avith the Carnegie Trust Company, on good se- 
curity, of course. Instead he asked certain banks to make 
the loans, promising that he would leave the city deposits 
with them meanwhile. But the falsehood was given out 
from day to day as a grand jury secret that money was 
paid to Chamberlain Hyde. There was not a scintilla of 
evidence of any such thing. At the trial, to make some 
pretense in this respect, it was shown that four months 
after the alleged offense was committed, namely, the re- 
quest that the loan should be made by the Northern Bank, 
a note of another person endorsed by Mr. Hyde was dis- 
counted in the Carnegie Trust Company, and promptly 
paid when it became due. No one can think of such things 

18G 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECTTES 



without perceiving the degradation which the a(hninistra- 
tion of the criminal law in this county of New \''ork lias 
come to. I am speaking plainly ahout the matter, hecause 
I hope all intelligent people like you will see to it that no 
such infamous thing happens again. The courts ought to 
be sanctuaries of refuge against clamor, instead of places 
where clamor is used to inflame and corrupt the adminis- 
tration of justice. 

Thcron C. Stearns, Esq., 

Jersey City, X. J. 



Literature of Weights and Measures 

July 2, 1913. 

Dear Mr. Strong: I appreciate your letter of June 
25th with regard to the work of the Bureau of Weights 
and Measures. Some years ago I read the report of John 
Quincy Adams to the United States Senate about weights 
and measures. It is a classic. It covers the whole htera- 
ture of the subject, and I know of no more enticing htera- 
ture. It runs through all history, ancient and modern. 
Much of it is in the Old Testament. For instance, " A 
false balance is an abomination to the Lord; but a just 
weight is his delight," as we read in Proverbs. One of the 
first duties of government from the beginning of organized 
society has been to provide for a uniform standard of 
weights and measures, and to enforce the use of the same. 
When I came in as IMayor I found the city filled with false 
weights and measures. The law cannot be said to have 
been enforced at all. I immediately took the matter up, 
and the young man at the head of that bureau has now 
brought "the work almost to completion, as you might 
yourself conclude since he has got so far along as even to 
establish a standard carat for the weight of precious stones. 

It is very gratifying to him and to me to have notice 
taken of his work by intelligent men, such as you have in 
the City Club. The great millions of the city know of the 

1S7 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

work, because they know that they have been protected 
from dishonest weights and measures. 

C. H. Strong, Esq., President, 

The City Club, 

Manhattan. 



Animals 

July 3, 1913. 

Dear Professor Osborn: Yes, I shall be glad to ap- 
point one of your Trustees to the Board of Education. I 
should have done it before if I had been reminded of it. I 
had not heard any proposition to drop the nature study 
from the curriculum of the public schools. Of course that 
matter is wholly with the school authorities, but I shall 
speak of it to some of them the first opportunity I get. 

I am much struck with one remark you make, that 
hundreds of thousands of our children never see a living- 
wild animal or bird. But I have several times gone much 
further than that. There are a very large number of peo- 
ple in this great city, larger than most people have any 
idea of, who have never seen a calf or a pig. We provide 
wild animals for them to look at, but not domestic animals. 
If I had my way we would have domestic animals for the 
people here to see. I am certain that a sow with a litter 
of pigs would be more intensely interesting to most people 
than any wild animal. And cow and calf, mare and colt, 
and so on, would also be most interesting. Is there any 
natural sight so interesting as a litter of pigs nursing? 

Prof. Henry Fairfield Osborn, 

New York City. 

A Safe and Sane Fourth 

July 8, 1913. 

Dear Mrs. Rice: I thank you for your letter, and 
especially for yom* article on " The Child and the Fourth." 

188 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

It shows the many ways in which our boys and girls can 
celebrate Independence Day with pleasure and profit. On 
last Friday (Independence Day) I went from my house 
through the Borough of Brooklyn and through the Bor- 
ough of Queens to the City line. What I saw gave me 
the greatest of pleasure. I did not hear the sound of an 
explosive anywhere. But every few blocks my motor car 
was stopped at the crossing and I got out and saw a local 
procession go by. These processions were made up mostly 
of school children, but there were in them also a good 
many grown-up people. What delighted me was that 
they had their own local bands of music. The number of 
these bands seems to be growing all over the city. Boys 
come together, each one furnishing a musical instrument, 
and practise music, and make up regular musical bands. 
This always has been so all through the country districts, 
not only in the villages but in the farm districts, and even 
up into the edge of the Adirondacks. It has always 
seemed to me that we should encourage the forming of 
such bands here. Some people want the city to hire bands 
and put them everywhere to play music. I think it is 
much better to encourage the forming of these volunteer 
bands. They are an education to those who belong to 
them and a delight to the whole neighborhood. It is not 
every one who can understand classical music. Very few 
understand it. But of course the city should furnish pub- 
lic music also in the parks and at the principal centers. 
Yes, it makes every one rejoice that the crippling, bhnd- 
ing and killing of children and grown people by explosives 
on Independence Day is a thing of the past. 

Mrs. Isaac L. Rice, 

Manhattan. 

Degradation of Newspaper Writers 

July 11, 1913. 

Dear : Your letter of July 10th is 

at hand. I have often thought over the matter which you 

189 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

mention. The jDresent position of newspaper writers, and 
especially of those who write the news, is degrading to the 
last degree. They are mere slaves. Worse than that, 
they are dishonorable slaves. The corrupt newspaper 
proprietor browbeats them, and kicks them about as he 
sees fit. He does not leave them free to write the honest 
truth, but dictates to them that they must lie, garble, 
forge, steal, or do anything to write down the official or 
person who is the subject of the animosity or cupidity of 
such proprietors. And if they refuse to do it they are 
kicked out. How long will the newspaper writers con- 
tinue to allow themselves to be degraded in that way? 
I am of course acquainted with the young men who serve 
as reporters here at the City Hall. They are, as a rule, 
fine young fellows. But some of them have to come 
around to my office shamefacedly to get the news only to 
forge and pervert it in the way which I have said. I pity 
them. They do not want to do it. They have to do it or 
get out. It seems to me the newspaper writers ought to 
protect themselves at least to the extent that typesetters, 
pressmen, and other mechanics protect themselves. At all 
events they ought to band together and protect themselves 
against the degradation of being made to write falsehood 
and abuse. 

On Christmas 

Christmas is the ha23piest day in the year. It is the 
birthday of Jesus, the greatest figure that ever came upon 
this earth. The farther we recede from him the more 
colossal he grows. He was the greatest teacher that ever 
came on this earth, and vet he never wrote a line. What 
he taught was propagated by word of mouth until the 
Gospels were written in a much later time. No one can 
read the account of the birth of Jesus in Luke's Gospel 
without being thrilled. The picture of the child in the 
manger with the cattle looking on never leaves the mind 
from childhood up. 

190 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

We children in the countiy saw the cow and the ox 
and the manner, and Jesus and all. IMavhe city children 
do not see it so vividlv. We lived with the cattle, and 
loved them. That Jesus was born among them made us 
feel that he was really one of us. Y^es, Christmas seems 
the same to me now as when I was a child. We used to 
hang up our stockings. We could scarcely go to sleep. 
But we did manage to get to sleep the same as chil- 
dren do now. And like them we were up before day- 
light to see what Santa Claus had brought. What he 
brought us was very little in value, but very great in our 
imaginations. We believed in his sleigh, in his reindeers, 
in his coming down the chimney, and the whole business. 
We did not entertain the least doubt of it. I have great 
difficulty to doubt it now, but I have some difficulty in 
making my children believe it after a few years. They 
have Santa Claus now coming in an automobile, and with 
false keys to open the front doors, and a whole lot of 
things that I do not like at all. But the world is ad- 
vancing. I do not remem})er ever having seen the little 
chap, but I am certain that he used to come around in the 
country when I w^as a boy. I think I have seen his foot- 
steps in the snow, and also the tracks of his reindeers and 
sleigh. I am glad the Brooklyn Times is issuing a Christ- 
mas su])plement. I wish I had time to add to its litera- 
ture. I wish every one who reads the supplement would 
then read the account of the birth of Jesus in the Gospels. 
And then let them read say the 23rd Psalm, and the 
Tw^elfth Chapter of Ecclesiastes. They will feel happy. 

Veto of a Separate Vice Department 

I feel constrained not to accept this bill on behalf of 
the city. I shall state the reasons in numerical order. 

1. The design of the committee of eminent citizens 
who examined into the matter was to take away from the 
Police Department the administration of the liquor tax- 
law, the laws against gambling, and the laws concerning 

191 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

female prostitution, and place the same in a separate de- 
partment. It has been the case here, and in the cities 
through this country, that the keepers of Hquor places, of 
gambling places and houses of prostitution, pay politi- 
cians, and to some extent police officials, to secure a lenient 
administration of the law in their case. The exposure of 
this condition from time to time has had a bad effect on 
the police force here as a whole, although its membership 
is now of a very high order and there is no better police 
force in the world. That even a few members of the police 
force extort graft, or are tempted to take it, creates a dis- 
trust of the whole force by those who are affected by 
clamor instead of thinking for themselves. It was there- 
fore thought best by the said committee to take the ad- 
ministration of the law respecting these things away from 
the police force, and leave it, untempted and undisturbed, 
to perform that which has always been its chief duty, 
namely, to preserve outward order and decency, and pre- 
vent, detect and arrest for the ordinary crimes. But this 
bill does not carry out this plan. It leaves the enforce- 
ment of the liquor tax law with the police force, instead 
of bringing it into the proposed new department, although 
the major part of the corruption money paid to police 
officials and politicians in the past has come from that 
source. It was stated on the hearing before me that the 
enforcement of this law was left with the police for the 
reason that I have established and carried out a plan which 
has done away with such corruption under it. While that 
is true, such corruption may very easily be revived here- 
after. We have also during the last few years done away 
with most of the corruption from the other two sources. 
That might be alleged as a reason also for not turning 
the administration of the laws in respect of them over to 
a separate department. If this thing is to be done at all 
it should be completely done. That is what the report of 
the committee of citizens called for. This bill is not in 
accordance with what the committee asked of the Legis- 
lature. 

192 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

2. This bill provides for a Department of Public Wel- 
fare, to consist of a board of seven commissioners, remov- 
able by the Mayor only for cause after a trial. This is 
contrary to the present scheme or constitution of govern- 
ment of this city. The board of seven members would 
probably result in discord and inefficiency. Our present 
system of single heads of departments to be appointed 
and removed by the Mayor at pleasure, was brought in 
for grave cause. I know of no reason to abandon it. It 
has worked well and has never been abused. The idea 
seems to be to divide the responsibility for the enforce- 
ment of these laws. That is a weakness to be deprecated. 
It is much better to center the responsibility, and experi- 
ence has proved that the place to center it is in the Mayor. 
The people of this great city ought to be able to elect a 
Mayor in whom thev would have full confidence and who 
would neither shrink from nor shirk any responsibility. 
I think the Mayor of this city can always rest assured 
that his fellow citizens will treat him with justice, however 
malevolent the attacks of petty politicians or corrupt 
people or however loud, senseless or corrupt clamor 
against him may be. 

3. There are two very dangerous sections in our city 
charter. The possibilities of oppression, extortion and 
blackmail under them by those who enforce the laws are 
without limit. The sections I refer to are 315 and 318. 
The former makes it the duty of the police, and empowers 
them, at all times of the day and night, to visit certain 
places mentioned, including " all houses of ill fame or 
prostitution, and houses where common prostitutes re- 
sort," and " all gambling houses," and " restrain all un- 
lawful and disorderly conduct or practices therein." 
Under this section the police had long claimed the right 
of visitation to these places, and to enter them by force 
without warrant. Indeed, literally read, the section em- 
powers the police to preserve order in such places. That 
would practically amount to hcensing them and putting 
them in charge of the police to keep order in them. The 
other section, namely, 318, empowers the police to enter 

193 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

any house in the city under a mere " report " to them of 
two householders that they beheve such house to be a 
house of ill fame or a gambling house. No oath is re- 
quired. This is contrary to the provision which is found 
in the bill of rights or constitution of every state in this 
union, and of the United States, that entrance into houses 
and searches and seizures therein cannot be made except 
on a warrant issued by a magistrate on the oath of wit- 
nesses before him showing probable cause. This section 
of the charter wholly disregards this great constitutional 
safeguard, which is common to every civilized government 
in the world. For that reason it is void. No better device 
for the practice of official extortion and blackmail could 
be devised than that afforded by these two sections. They 
have been dead letters since I have been Mayor. I have 
forbidden any house to be entered or any search or arrest 
to be made under them. It is always easy to get a war- 
rant from a magistrate to enter a house when necessary. 
If no evidence can be found to lay before a magistrate on 
oath, that in itself shows that the house should not be 
entered. In years gone by the police have made use of 
these two sections of the charter to assert the right of 
forcible entry and visitation and inspection of houses at 
will. In that way they were able to collect any amount 
of money they saw fit, and in fact high officials of the 
police department one after another, and year after year, 
retired millionaires. This is all a matter of history. In 
1905 my predecessor appointed a commission to consider 
police matters. These two dangerous sections of the 
charter were pointed out to that commission, together 
with the extortion which had long been practised under 
them. The result was that the said commission recom- 
mended their repeal to the Legislature. But they were 
not repealed. And now, when I had supposed it was well 
known that these two sections of the charter had been 
made dead letters, and were no longer in use, the Legis- 
lature solemnly re-enacts them both in the bill now before 
me. Under no circumstances could I be induced to sign 

194 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

this bill with these two sections in it. We have far more 
to fear in this country from the gradual encroachment of 
arbitrary power than from all the vices of hquor drinking, 
prostitution and gambling combined, if not from all the 
vices combined. It must never be forgotten that the exer- 
cise of arbitrary power brings in its wake sooner or later 
all of the vices, and especialty the detestable vices of offi- 
cial oppression, extortion and blackmail. 

4. And finally, there is no exigency calling for this 
bill. As a rule all unwise legislation is passed in time of 
senseless clamor. Never in thirty years has there been so 
little corruption in the police force as now. And yet some, 
who listen only to public clamor, instead of thinking for 
themselves, would have it that corruption is so rife in the 
police force that we need to humiliate that force by taking 
away from them certain of their powers. Of the 10,000 men 
on our police force there are not 50, probably not 25 cor- 
rupt ones. During the last year disclosures of the taking of 
graft by a few members of the police force during the last 
several years were made. Thev were made in every case 
by some one whose corrupt house, whether gambling house 
or worse, had been seized and put out of business by order 
of the police commissioner. Some lose sight of the fact 
that the disclosures were in this way forced by a strict ad- 
ministration of the law by the police commissioner. Men 
and women who had kept these infamous houses for a 
generation, and during that time had tempted and cor- 
rupted the police, were arrested by the police and their 
houses were closed as public nuisances. The law makes 
every gambling house or house of ill fame a public 
nuisance, and the police, or the citizens generally, have a 
right to abate it. I caused that law to be revived, and it 
is under it that the police take possession of such houses. 
From time to time as they have arrested the keepers of 
such houses, and taken possession of the houses as pubhc 
nuisances, such keepers have threatened to disclose that 
they had been paying protection money to the pohce or 
politicians, and in four or five instances such disclosures 

195 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

were actually made. In place of the police force being 
blamed, it should be commended for having caused such 
disclosures bv the enforcement of the law. One would 
think from the clamor that has been raised against the 
police commissioner that the police have done nothing in 
this matter, but that it was all done by some other per- 
sons. Rosenthal opened, one after another, twelve 
gambling houses within a year. Each one in turn was 
seized by the police. After the twelfth one had been 
seized, about one year ago, and the police were in pos- 
session of it, he concluded that he could no longer conduct 
his business in the city of New Y^ork, and then made dis- 
closures that he had corrupted a police lieutenant, Becker 
by name. The same thing happened with Sipp, whose 
dirtj^ houses were seized. He made disclosures of graft. 
The same thing happened with the women Goode and 
Hertz. The same thing happened with a saloon keeper, 
and these are all the sources of graft disclosures which we 
have had. And the disclosures have been principally of 
things that ha]:)pened many years ago. In place of there 
being any dereliction on the part of the police during the 
last three years, it was the full performance of duty by 
them which brought about these disclosures. In fact, the 
two commissioners whom I appointed worked from the 
beginning to spot the dishonest officers on the force and 
get rid of them. In that way we actually got rid of twelve 
inspectors and captains, and the recent conviction of four 
captains raises the number to sixteen. The people of this 
city are beginning to perceive the truth of this matter. In 
place of their police force having failed, its efficiency was 
never at as high a point as it is today, or as it has been 
during the last three years. Nor do the police take the 
law into their own hands. They proceed against all evil 
houses as public nuisances. The character of a house is 
proved by those who frequent it. A house to which 
gamblers or prostitutes resort is a public nuisance. The 
police observe these houses, and then get warrants against 
them as public nuisances, and proceed against the pro- 

196 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



prietors, and take possession of the houses, and ahate the 
nuisances. This has now been going on for three years, 
during which scores of such houses have been permanently 
put out of business. It was boinid to bring out disclosures 
of corruption. I have been surprised that it has not 
brought out more. When corrupt disclosures are thus 
brought out. the accused officers are indicted and pros- 
ecuted. 



197 



A FEW SPEECHES OF 
MAYOR GAY NOR 

We give here a few of the many 
speeches of Mayor Gaynor. They 
have been picked out at random from 
the typewritten copies of his speeches. 
All of his many speeches, excepting 
two, since he has been Mayor have been 
delivered without notes, extemporane- 
ously, and most of them almost on the 
spur of the moment, and taken by sten- 
ographers. Sometimes his speeches are 
decidedly free and colloquial, and some- 
times are quite formal and precise, to 
suit the occasion. Good humor always, 
and sometimes wit, runs through them. 
He has made more speeches than any 
former Mayor of New York, and it 
may be more than all the former 
Mayors of New York put together. 
Many of his speeches have been de- 
livered at banquets. All of his speeches 
would fill several volumes. They cover 
a great variety of topics, and show 
that he has studied and thought over 
many things. 



Mayor Gaynor's Letters and Speeches 



PART II— SPEECHES 



Personal Reminiscences 

(Remarks at the Sons of Oneida Dinner, Hotel Aster, January 

28, 1913.) 

Gentlemen of the Sons of Oneida : I am very happy 
indeed to greet you all. It is very seldom I get a chance 
to be toastmaster, but I am President of your society. 
I generally have the other end of it. So I will try to be 
as good a toastmaster as I know how. From what I have 
seen of toastmasters since I have been Mayor I do not 
remember a single one to pattern after. As a rule you 
cannot get a word in edgewise with them. They say 
everything. No matter what your subject is, and no 
matter how well you have prepared it, they manage 
in some way to say it before you get a chance to 
say it. I am not going to do that to-night. I am 
going to stick to my own business if I can. I have 
a hard time to do that as Mayor, and some think I 
do not do it. And a few think I do. Of course I think 
the few are right. There are not so many of us sons of 
Oneida County, but still we are of good quality. What 
we lack in numbers we make up in quality. I do not know 
when I have seen so many men together for whom I have 
so great an affection. There are men here who remind me 
of my boyhood days. 

Every one of you has some particular idea with regard 
to old Oneida County, and what a grand old place it was. 
I remember every foot of it. Even the streams and creeks 

201 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

in which I fished, in the spring. I could enumerate them 
all. The Unadilla. Did you ever hear a prettier name 
than the Unadilla? And the Saquoit, and the Oriskany; 
and the raging Mohawk, of course I cannot leave that out. 
They are making the barge canal of it now, but it is there 
yet. And all the places that I can enumerate and the 
familiar names, even Verona Springs. There is some one 
here from Verona Springs. Who is it? (A voice — " Mr. 
Cady." ) That is his name. My father went out to Verona 
Springs once and brought home a barrel of sulphur water. 
It was to cure us of all the diseases that we had, and to 
prevent us from ever having any other. (A voice — " The 
judge left the water out in the field and got well.") You 
are quite right, Cady, my father put it out in the barn 
near the pig pen. (A voice — " What effect did it have on 
the pigs?") Well, it smelled so bad that even the pigs 
could not stand it. So he took the barrel of sulphur water 
and he put it out in the middle of the Dexter lot, a ten- 
acre lot on the farm, as far away from the house as we 
could get, and we could not stand it even that far away, 
Cady, and I think we finally went and knocked the end 
of the barrel in and got rid of it. They were trying to 
make a watering place of Verona, and that was the result. 
Forgive me, Cady, I may be doing you and Verona great 
harm. (Mr. Cady — " I forgive you.") All right. Yes, all 
sorts of memories. I see Marsh over there. Many a time 
I went through Whitesboro and looked at the sign of the 
cloclanaker Marsh. I guess he was Marsh's grandfather 
by the looks of Marsh over there now. I have known him 
ever since he has been down here. He may be older than 
he looks, but at all events his father, or grandfather, kept 
the clock store there. But we cannot go into all these 
things. All of you have memories, local ones, as dear as 
mine. Of course my closest memory is to the old farm 
house. I was calling off names to you a moment ago, but 
the name of the place where I saw daylight and spent my 
boyhood on the farm was " Skeeterboro," dearest of all. 
The origin of the name is too obvious to need me to pause 

202 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



to explain it to you. Skeeterboro forever with me. The 
next closest memory to me of course is the schoolliouse up 
at Skeeterboro. Now, do not imagine that Skeeterboro 
was a village or that the houses were close together. We 
lived close enough together for peace sake so far as I re- 
member, but I do not think any of us were within half a 
mile of each other. There were the Christies, and the 
Marrs, and the Sutliffes and the Paynes, and the Park- 
hursts, and so on. Probably it is due to the Parkhurst 
family, if there be any of them here, that I say they were 
in no way related to Rabbi Parkhurst of New York. He 
is a friend of mine. But those were all capital people. 
And the schoolhouse, you all have a memory of some little 
schoolliouse up there, except those of you who were born 
in that great metropolis called Utica. My schoolliouse 
on the outside today is just the same as it was when I went 
there. It has never been painted to this day. The one 
that my mother went to just over the river in the town of 
Marcy where she was born and reared was painted red, 
and every time I saw it I was struck with awe. But the 
one I went to has not had a touch of paint to this day. 
They have, however, put the city desks in. In those days 
the desks slanted down from the four walls inward, and 
then the benches were along in front of the desks, and we 
studied our lessons sitting on the benches with our face 
to the wall, and then when we were going to recite we 
threw our heels over the bench and faced about to the 
teacher, and at the same time faced the big stove in the 
center of the room that burned the cord wood. And many 
a day in the winter have I tramped to that schoolhouse. 
And sometimes to get home they had to turn out and 
dig out the snow. And how often we had our ears frozen 
on the way to school or while out playing, or our faces 
frozen even, and when our ears thawed out sometimes they 
hung over so that they came down flat almost. I have 
one thick ear. I suppose you can see it. But I got that 
in a Long Island snowstorm three years ago. I got it 
bad that night. It reminded me of Skeeterboro and going 

203 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

to school. And then right within three-quarters of a mile 
of our farm, and the same distance from the little school- 
house is the site of the battle of Oriskany. There is a fine 
monument there now showing where that decisive battle 
was fought. The result of putting that monument up is 
that every person living in that whole country up there 
round about knows all about the battle of Oriskany. But 
I may as well tell you and get rid of it, that never in the 
schoolhouse or out of the schoolhouse did I ever in my 
boyhood hear of the battle of Oriskany. After I came 
down here the Oneida County Historical Society put up 
this grand monument, and afterwards when I went up 
there I was surprised to learn that it was so close to the 
house in which I was born and the schoolhouse to which I 
went to school. And yet it was one of the decisive oc- 
casions of the Revolutionary War. No one can stand at 
the base of that monument now without realizing the mag- 
nitude of the Revolutionary War. One column was com- 
ing down from Canada, a British column I mean, through 
the Mohawk Valley, and another was coming way around 
by the Lakes from Canada, and they were going to meet 
on the Hudson at Albany and take possession of the Hud- 
son River and thereby cut the New England colonies off 
from the other colonies, a thing which would have been 
fatal to the Revolutionary cause. Herkimer and his 
neighbors checked the column which was coming down 
through the Mohawk Valley, and Burgoyne (that strange 
character who wrote the opera, " The Barber of Seville," 
isn't it? — a strange character)- — met his fate at Saratoga, 
surrendered at Saratoga, and that was the end of that 
gigantic scheme of the British. Think of the distances 
they traveled in those days. But I will not go into that 
subject. I mention the matter more to show the value of 
monuments as teachers of history. New England got 
ahead of the whole country by early erecting monuments. 
The monument at Bennington, the monument at Bunker 
Hill, and others. The story of the New England battle- 
fields was told by monuments from the start. But more 
important battles occurred elsewhere, whose story re- 

204 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

mained untold chiefly because no monuments were erected 
to them. Monuments have always been the greatest 
teachers of history. When you see a monument you ask 
what it means and you learn all about it. So that from 
the beginning of the world the monuments have been the 
great teachers, and now the monument at Oriskany, the 
monument at Saratoga, the little monument to Baron 
Steuben, have taught that whole part of the state the great 
event of the war which occurred in those localities. Those 
were great days. I would like to just say a few more 
things but I won't. I was up there a few years ago, five 
years ago, I think, the last, and I went through the neigh- 
borhood where I was born. Every family was ffone that 
was there when I was there except one. Half of the boys 
in the school that I w^ent to w^ere Welsh. My chum in the 
school was Bill Griffiths. He is alive up there yet, and he 
is the only one that I know of. He runs a threshing ma- 
chine. There is one other Griffith that I have a notion to 
name — she is dead and gone — and that was Jane Griffith, 
his sister. It didn't happen, but it might have happened. 
And I came from the neighborhood and walked down and 
through Cider Street. Some of 3^ou know where Cider 
Street is. It is a country road down to Oriskany. My 
home was three miles west of Oriskany and about five 
miles from Rome. And I walked down to the little vil- 
lage cemetery, just before you get into Oriskany, about 
sunset, and I went over the stile, and went through the 
tombs, the modest tombstones, and there I saw all these 
names. Most of them were sleeping there. I would not 
like to say that I knelt down, but I certainly was greatly 
affected. All of you have experienced the same thing. 
There they were sleeping. Those that were not sleeping 
had moved off to the west and other places. And I will 
tell you before I introduce the speakers what happened 
at the last visit as I was on the way up to Skeeterboro. 
I was going along the road and I just came to the first lot 
of my father's old farm called the Dexter lot, and T met a 
man on the road. I could not be mistaken. I went to 

205 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

school with him; but he does not Hve in Skeeterboro now; 
he hves a Httle way off, near by towards Hampton, and I 
knew it was Tom PhilKps as soon as I saw him. There 
may be some here that remember the Philhps family. 
And I bade him good day, and he bid me good day, and 
spit more or less tobacco juice on the road, and we sat 
on the fence and talked, and he told me finally he was in 
much trouble. He didn't know who I was — I was then 
a Justice of the Supreme Court; and he said he was in 
much trouble and I says, what is it? Well, he says, not 
long ago I went down to Oriskany one Saturday night 
and I got rather high. We never said drunk up there. 
We always said we got high. That is an Oneida County 
expression and it is used elsewhere. And he said a chap 
down there, I got into a fight with him, and he gave me a 
good licking. Oh, he says, he beat me bad. Well, I 
says, what of that? Yes, he says, but he came up here 
about a month afterwards and I met him on the road and 
I went for him and I gave him a good licking. So I says, 
what of that? That is an every day occurrence up here, 
or used to be. Well, he says, he wasn't satisfied, but he 
went up to Rome to the District Attorney and got me 
indicted. He says, I have thirteen children and, I think 
he said, ten cows. And he says I see no way except to 
sell a couple of cows and hire a lawyer to defend me, and 
that goes pretty hard with me. I talked it over with him 
and we finally parted. He did not know who I was, but 
when I got home to Brooklyn I sat down and wrote a 
letter to the District Attorney at Rome and told him 
poor Tom's case and the trouble he was in, and it is need- 
less to say that Tom did not have to sell his two cows to 
hire a lawyer. He was fortunate enough to meet a lawyer 
on the road. I wrote the District Attorney and told him 
about some of the ancient customs up in that county. I 
told him the whole story as Tom gave it to me, but I wrote 
also in the letter that when I was a boy up there such 
things as that never happened ; that if a fellow got licked 
he never went up to Rome to indict anybody for we had 

206 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

an ancient custom among us that before we entered into a 
fight we always said, " saj^ no law and I will lick you." 
Then if the other fellow said " no law " that meant that 
the law was off, and however tlie battle went there was to 
be no law suit and no indictment. I said to him in my let- 
ter that I did not know whether poor Tom observed this 
ancient custom or not, but however it may be I hoped he 
would be as lenient with him as possible. Eut that was 
the custom when I lived up there. When we wanted to 
battle we said to the other fellow, " say no law and I will 
lick you," and if he was brave enough he said, " no law," 
and then we had it out, and settled it riglit there, and there 
was no law afterwards. I would like to have that custom 
down here. If we had it there are two or three fellows 
down here that own nasty newspapers, and I would like 
to have it out with them on that basis. I don't want to 
boast because I am growing old, but I really think I 
could do them up. They may think they can do me up 
with their dirty pens, but I think I could do them up the 
other way. I think I have sand enough left in me for 
that, and it would not require much either, to tell the truth. 
Now there is old Skeeterboro for you. There are other 
things I could talk about but some of them would be mel- 
ancholy, and some of them would be a twice told tale. I 
would like to be there again. I would like to go out and 
gather the beechnuts in the fall and do many things that 
we used to do in those days. ISTow you see I am forget- 
ting that I am only the toastmaster. I might as well say 
when I got through with Skeeterboro I came down to 
Utica, and I stayed there and studied and kept as still as 
I could for about a year and a half or two years. I 
thought Utica was a wonderful place. And finally I got 
ready to leave Utica also. So I went down to the trunk 
store and bought me a good big trunk. And I had my 
name painted on one end of it. I never expected to come 
back to Utica either. I had my name painted on the end 
of it, and big letters under it, "Utica, N. Y." I thought 
that would give me recognition wherever I went. But I 

207 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

only got a very little ways off from Utica before nobody 
knew who I was, and I didn't get much further away be- 
fore nobody knew or cared anything about Utica. So I 
shook the dust of Utica off my feet. But we have with 
us here to-night one who is a great figure in Utica. He 
was there when I was there. We all looked up to him. 
If there was anything requiring public spirit in the place 
we turned to him as the IVIussulman turns towards Mecca 
when he wants to say his prayers, or thinks he does, which 
is the same thing. And that was my old friend T. R. 
Proctor, of Utica. We will have a few words from Mr. 
Proctor. 

Abuse of Officials 

(Speech at the Dinner of the Citizens' Association, Bay Ridge, 

April 17, 1913.) 

Mr. Chairman and Fellow Citizens: I thank the 
chairman for his kind introduction. He said that he hesi- 
tated about saying much that was good of me, because he 
knew I would not like to listen to it. It may be that is 
so, or maybe I would like to listen to it; but the fact is I 
very seldom get the chance to listen to anything good of 
me. I have grown so used to being spoken ill of that it 
does not sound right when anybody says anything good 
of me. I feel as though there was something the matter. 
I think it is IMacaulay who says, speaking of the habits of 
the ancient Germans in the time of Caesar, when they were 
excessive drinkers. He says that they drank so hard and 
were so continuously drunk that if they happened to get 
sober they thought they were sick. And so it is with my- 
self. I have been abused so much that when anybody like 
your Chairman here says something good of me I think 
there must be something the matter with me. I feel sick. I 
think the Comptroller here at my right feels a little bit 
tliat way too, because for the last year or so he has not 
been dealt with any too gently either by some of these 
abusers of me, particularly about the subways. But it is 
all over, and I hope well over. I come here really because 

208 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

your Chairman asked me to come, and I knew of no way 
to say no. We see him over in the Board of Estimate 
prett}^ often. We almost wind the clock over there by 
him, his comings in and goings away are so regular; but 
he always has something to say that is helpful. He 
doesn't come over to abuse us or annoy us. We sit there 
sometimes and hear ourselves compared to Tweed and 
ancient malefactors who left a bad memory after them. 
For instance, the day that we passed the subway busi- 
ness, finally, we all sat up there in a row, and we kept as 
still and as square faced as we could while five people 
spoke. I think they were sent up by the Hearst news- 
paper office. The Comptroller is helping me out. But I 
was going to say just what he suggested to me. He is 
not able to remember, and neither am I that any one of 
them was quite sane. Those are the kind of people that 
Hearst generally sends up to talk to us. Now and then 
the two little Pulitzers help add to the number, and send 
up two or three puny little fellows like themselves to tell 
us w^hat to do. But on this particular occasion they 
called us Tw^eed and all the malefactors that have pre- 
ceded us for 50 years, and we let them all talk. And 
one of them went back to the rear of the hall, and when 
everybody had said all he wanted to say, he said, well, I 
have this to say anyhow, that this is the first time in my 
life that I was allowed to express my opinion fully. But 
others come over there to help us, and others do help us. 
I suppose you all help us. Do you? I am looking 
around to see if I can see somebody to blame, but I don't 
see anyone it so happens. That is what we need in office. 
We need a good word, now and then, even though we do 
not deserve it. It makes us feel better. And disposes us 
to do better. Y^ou want to treat your public officials with 
common decency. We do not ask to be coddled. We do 
not invite everybody to agree with us in our opinion. On 
the contrary we give public hearings when the law does 
not require it, so as to give the citizens an opportunity to 
express their honest opinions; and as I whisper to my as- 

209 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

sociates next to me now and then when a bumptious fel- 
low gets up to talk to us " Now, this fellow will let a great 
flood of light in on us, or possibly we can let a httle ray 
of light in on him." That is the way we consider it. But 
the citizens can be very helpful to our officials by exercis- 
ing patience and intelligence. Mere abuse is no good. 
We have received infinite help in the large things which 
we have done since we came into office from the different 
associations throughout the city like yours. You have 
sent delegations. Sometimes you have differed from us. 
Sometimes you agree with us. But in either case you 
helped us, because your difference was honest, and your 
help was honest. But when things degenerate into mere 
abuse and into party animosity — I won't saj'' party ani- 
mosity, but little partisan animosity — then you can get 
very little good out of government. When you put peo- 
ple into office that settles it. From that hour on you 
want to help them. It is not a party matter at all. It is 
a matter of good government. And now if you will 
allow me to leave myself out of the case just for one mo- 
ment I beg to say that looking all over this country at the 
cities and the States, and looking over Europe so far as I 
am familiar with Europe, from the Comptroller and the 
Borough Presidents, to the heads of departments of the 
city, there is not a more competent body of men anywhere 
to be found so far as I know. Mr. Pounds told me this 
evening, and it is all right. Pounds, for me to mention it, 
that he was at some dinner lately and the man next to him 
asked him if he was a college graduate, and he said yes, 
and the man laughed, and he said, well I didn't think there 
was a college graduate in the whole city government. Just 
think of a miserable little coot like that. Why, he wasn't 
decent enough to know who the members of the city gov- 
ernment were. That was what was the matter with him, 
and there are too many like him, when the truth is, if 
you take the elected officers of this city, which are three 
in number, and then the Borough Presidents, and then the 
heads of departments of the city, seven-tenths of them 

210 






MAYOR GAYNOR>S LETTERS AND STEECHES 

are college graduates and men of the highest standing. 
Most of them were men of large business themselves, com- 
petent men, scholars, and gentlemen. Why, it does me 
good when I look at them. I wish we had the whole out- 
fit in this room to-night. They are a good looking lot of 
fellows too. Present company excepted. Mr. Cleary 
says he saw me down at Richmond at the waterways con- 
vention. I was there. I was at Washington at another 
convention similar to that, and in other parts of the coun- 
try at similar conventions. I was not thinking about what 
he has been talking about, that some people there knew me 
by repute to some extent ; but what did me good at all of 
these places that I have attended was to see some of our 
city officials here get up and make speeches on subjects that 
were enlightening to these conventions. That is what did 
me good — to let those people get the sight of an official of 
the city of New York. Why, some of our newspapers 
here would lead the rest of the country to think that those 
in office here are a lot of thugs. They are pictured as 
thugs in the papers, some of them even with balls and 
chains on their legs ; and we must not blame the rest of the 
country if they think there is some truth in that, although 
I hope we have said enough in the last year or two to make 
the whole country sit up and take notice that we have some 
newspapers here that are utterly unworthy of belief in 
any respect whatever. They are that because their pro- 
prietors are that. When you get a low bred newspaper 
you have got a low bred proprietor behind it. Blood will 
tell in everything. But I will not go on at length. I 
arose only to say a few words. You have a long toast list. 
I came here more to thank the people of this locality for 
the assistance they have rendered us with regard to the 
docks, with regard to the subways, and with regard to 
other things that we are doing. There is no use bringing 
up things that are past. We have had a hard struggle 
with some things, but we have worked them out the best 
we knew how. This must be said, however, in any gov- 
ernment, however intelligent or however good it is — and 

211 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

I allude to government of course among a free people — 
however good and intelligent it may be, most of what is 
done that is timely and good originates not in the gov- 
ernment itself but from the outside. Government after 
all only registers the will of the people within the law. I 
have no patience at all — I may as well say it plainly — 
with those elected to office Avho come in saying that they 
are going to do whatever the people want. That is no 
way to enter into office. The way to enter into office is 
with the intention of doing what the law requires, and 
then within the law, the people can express what they 
want, and help to carry it out. All the public works of 
the city, subway, docks, or what not, are things with which 
the intelligent people are familiar. It is for them to orig- 
inate things, and then come forward to the government 
and suggest them and carry them out, and in that respect 
we have received as much assistance as we have any reason 
to expect. You live over here in a growing neighborhood. 
Some people are always saying that they wish the city to 
grow rapidly, and all the vacant spaces to be filled in. I 
know all those who own vacant real estate are very much 
of that point of view. They want a subway in every 
street. But that really is not the view to take of it. The 
city ought to grow normally. We have no reason for 
rushing it, or hurrying it. Our duty is simply to keep up 
with the growth of the community, and to do the things 
required for the comfort of the community. Lincoln 
often said that all he professed to do was to keep up with 
the people. He did not rate himself a political leader. 
He said, " I manage to keep up with the procession." 
That was his homely way of saying it. That meant that 
he had absolute reliance in the judgment and intelligence 
of the people; and when he said people he did not mean 
every fellow with no visible means of support and with a 
patch on his trousers. That is not what he meant. But 
he meant the intelligent people, the good people, the just 
people, who constitute the spine of society and keep so- 
ciety in order. We realize all that in what we have been 

ft' 

212 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

doing amidst the abuse. We realize the inestimable bene- 
fit which societies like this here to-night are to the city 
when they are directed right, when they are patient, and 
when they come forward not to scold but to help. The 
scolding element in the community is not a very large one, 
but the few scolders there are among us make more noise 
than all the rest of us. Dr. Parldmrst and this clergy- 
man over here in Brooklyn who says that Brooklyn is the 
vestibule of hell, make more noises than all the other 
clergymen in the city, don't they? And yet the others are 
all working and helping and doing the best they can for 
society and abusing nobody. If they see something- 
wrong they come forward and talk to us, and help and call 
attention to it. But noise, no. " Still waters run deep." 
Or, as the saying is, " the shallows murmur when the deeps 
are dumb," and to use one more expression, one stridulent 
grasshopper in the angle of a fence makes more noise than 
the noble herd nearby. Pious Dr. Parkhurst. Bilious 
Dr. Parkhurst. He thinks he is pious when he is only 
bilious. Self sufficient, all sufficient, insufficient Dr. 
Parkhurst. Forgive me, but he is a man of vast and 
varied 7msmfoTmation, of brilliant mental ^capacity and 
of prodigious moral requirements. These people make 
much noise but do no good. Their hearts are filled with 
evil. They love nobody. They do not want to help the 
Comptroller. They do not want to help the Mayor. 
They do not want to help anybody. They want to find 
fault for their own exploitation and sensation. Now 
these people we forgive of course, twice a day. We for- 
give them but we desire to have nothing to do with them. 
But people like you who help us and take us by the hand 
and show that whatever your hope is, or whatever your 
prejudices are, you still have an honest heart. People 
like that we welcome every hour in the day. The latch 
string of the City Hall and the Comptroller's office and 
in all of the offices hangs out for people like you all the 
time. 



213 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

The ** Single Tax'* 

(Speech at the Lower Rents Exhibit, 29 Union Square, February 

17, 1913.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : I came up at the re- 
quest of Mr. Ingersoll, just to say a few words. I have 
known him for many years, and he has long worked in 
and taught these matters. Rent is caused by population. 
Where there is no population there is no rent ; and where 
the population becomes congested rent becomes high. The 
congestion of population produces more evils than high 
rent. It produces all sorts of physical and moral evils, as 
you see in this city here. Why should these congestions 
of population exist? I may ask. There is plenty of room 
in the world. All the people on this globe if collected 
here could stand up in the city of New York and each one 
would have two feet square to stand on, if I remember 
right. So you see the people of the world in proportion 
to land space are not so many after all. And they could 
all be put in the State of Texas and have about two or 
three acres apiece, I don't remember exactly. And yet 
these congestions of population occur here and there all 
over the world, and create many social and physical dis- 
orders, as well as this high rent which you proclaim 
against. Your object is to reduce rents. How do you 
go about reducing rents? Why, there is only one way to 
reduce rents — or two ways, rather. One is to disperse 
the population; the other way is to increase the number 
of houses all the time, and make supply match or exceed 
demand. Rent depends on supply and demand of houses. 
Some people think that rents rise as taxes rise. Some 
people think that all a landlord has to do is to add his 
taxes to his rents. But these things are not so. Taxes 
may be going up while rents are going down. I saw 
the time in Brooklyn when we were paying a rate of $3 
in the 100 for taxes, and yet rents did not go up while 
the taxes were going up. They went down, and were far 
lower than over here where the tax rate was much lower. 

214 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

You camiot increase rents by liigli taxes, except in an in- 
direct way. If taxes are so onerous on tlie buildings that 
people stop erecting buildings, why then you have a 
scarcity of houses and buildings ; and in that indirect way 
there may be an increase in rents brought about under the 
rule of supply and demand. Now, these are first prin- 
ciples that I am talking to you about. And yet here 1 
am in the presence of the philosophers on this subject. 1 
suppose you will listen to me with impatience expecting 
me to launch out into something new on the subject. 
There is nothing new. You single taxers have developed 
the whole case, so far as I know. I have heard you here 
and there. If you have not made as much progress as 
you think you should have made I think I can state one 
reason for it. In your speeches and writings in years 
past you have been a little too cock-sure. Some of you 
have been acrimonious. Some of you say you think other 
people are very dense and ignorant because they do not 
think as you do. In other words, you try to ram your 
theories down the throats of people before they are ready 
to receive them, the same as they feed Strasburg geese to 
make their livers swell. No one ever succeeded that way. 
Franklin treats on that in his Autobiography. He says 
the way to convince a man is to express a little doubt about 
it yourself. Just shake your head, and wag it a few 
times to this side and then to that, and may be shrug one 
shoulder and then the other, and say, " Well, it seems so 
to me, but I am not clear and may be wrong about it." 
And then the other fellow will take it all in, and turn 
around and try to convince you. That is the way to con- 
vince people. I am sure some of your orators do not 
adopt that method, because I have listened to them now 
and then. This single tax question has been now widely 
discussed all over the world. The phrase " single tax " I 
never thought any too happy. The object is to concen- 
trate all taxation on the land. Now, to uninitiated people 
who are listening to me that means on the land and build- 
ings and improvements. But it doesn't mean any such 

215 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

thing. Your theory is that the taxes should be put on 
the bare land alone, and that the buildings and houses and 
improvements should all go free of taxation. That in a 
word is the so-called George theory. I may express it 
otherwise by saying that your theory of taxation is to ab- 
sorb all ground rents into the public treasury by way of 
taxation ; that is to say, the rental value of the bare ground, 
without anything on it. Never mind the buildings, you 
say, but tax the land up to its rental value, and get the 
whole ground rent into the public treasury as a tax. Here 
is a bare lot. Well, it has a rental value, or it has none. 
If it is worth anything it has a rental value of, say, 4 per 
cent., or 5 per cent., of such value. If the lot is worth 
say, $1,000, then presumably it has a rental value of 4 
per cent, of $1,000, or 5 per cent., and that should all be 
levied as a tax according to your theory. And then here 
is another lot with a building on it, a lot worth $5,000, say, 
and the building worth $10,000. Well if the place is taxed 
$500 under the present system of taxation, that means that 
two-thirds of it is on the building and the other third on 
the land. Your theory would distinguish between the 
building and the land and find out the value of the land, 
the lot, and tax that according to its ground rent, and no 
more, so as to draw the whole ground rent into the treas- 
ury, and let the building go free. Now, that is the theory. 
But every man out of one hundred that you speak to on 
this subject thinks you mean to tax the buildings and the 
land, which is not the theory at all. All buildings, all im- 
provements, being done by the hand of man, let that all go 
free and tax only the land which God made, according to 
its rental value. The rental value is not created by the 
owner, but by the growth of population, by society at 
large, and therefore belongs not to any individual, but to 
society at large. That is your theory. And you say that 
that would produce revenue enough to pay all the ex- 
penses of government. I do not know whether that is 
true or not. I have never run it out carefully enough to 
know. I did once run it out in the city of Brooklyn when 

216 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



the taxes were high there, and as near as I could make out 
the taxes being paid there were equivalent to the ground 
rent of the whole city. I thought so, yet I may have been 
mistaken. I mean that if the total tax were taken it was 
equivalent to all the ground rent in the city at that time. 
Now, the taking of the ground rent by taxation may be a 
perfect system of taxation, as philosophers and econo- 
mists admit the world over. But there is a difficulty 
about it. Y^ou know things in this world are not always 
ideal. And it is pretty hard to get them ideal. I know 
they are not ideal with me. I have a pretty tough time 
of it. You have to deal with all sorts of minds and con- 
ditions, and they do not produce the ideal. They produce 
a sort of average, and that average is very often a pretty 
poor one. But we have this great satisfaction, that it is 
getting better in the world all the time. The average of 
things grows steadily better year by year all over the 
world, I think, and particularly here. The difficulty that 
I perceive about putting your system of taxation into 
operation is this, namely, that you cannot do it now with- 
out injustice. If society had started in that way, it 
would have been easy. But now it is difficult to change 
without doing injustice. We have to admit that the value 
of the naked land is created not by the fellow who has his 
foot on it and owns it, but by the increase of population 
and industry all around it. Why, within the last few 
years in this city the lands over in Queens and o\'er in 
Brooklyn in the outskirts which sold from $100 to $500 
an acre are selling for more than that per lot, 20 feet 
front. You have to pay more for a lot than those who 
bought up these lands paid by the acre when they bought 
them. They have not done anything to it ; it is the same 
bare land. But you and I and the rest of us who want to 
buy a lot always have to pay that increased price, although 
we created it ourselves. We do not get it by the acre. 
Others buy it by the acre and sit down on it until popula- 
tion increases around it, and gives it an increased value, 
and then you and I pay these high prices for the land 

217 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and we build a house on it. So that if the theory of ab- 
sorbing all the ground rent is put into force at once, why, 
John the butcher and William the baker, and those who 
bought these lands and built on them are the ones that 
would suffer. Whoever has the land has to suffer. Be- 
cause to absorb by taxation the whole ground rent of the 
land would destroy the value of the land. Now, it is very 
easy to say that the present method is unjust — that inas- 
much as society, not the owner, creates values of the bare 
land, society should own these values and have the benetit 
of them by taking them into the treasury by taxation as 
I have described. Now, as a moral proposition you would 
have to cudgel your head a good deal to get away from 
that. But the trouble is to put it in force without doing 
injury to everybody who has bought land on the present 
basis. It would, in fact, be a confiscation of the land. 
There is no doubt about that. We may as well speak 
plain about it. I am speaking of the bare land, mind. 
So it all comes down to this, namely, in place of adopting 
at the beginning this system of absorbing the ground rents 
by taxation, society by miiversal consent, or by the con- 
sent of the majority, adopted a different system, and has 
lived by it up to the present time; and the rule is that 
when society does a thing, creates a condition, although 
that condition is not ideal, or not even right, economically, 
nevertheless society should not suddenly change from that 
condition if it thereby wrongs a great many people, or 
most people, or even a respectable minority of people. 
What society creates and suffers and builds up, society 
must bear. If one of you went over to Queens county 
and bought a lot for $1,000, whereas the man you bought 
of bought the whole tract for only $100 an acre, for us to 
put your system of taxation into vogue now would destroy 
your lot; and your $1,000 is wiped out with one stroke; 
because land, you know, has no value except what value 
the ground rent gives it, its usable value, its rentable 
value. And when that is all absorbed into the treasury 
your land is there, to be sure, but your $1,000 is not there. 

218 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SP EECHES 

It is wiped out. You liave got your foot on the lot yet, but 
in place of being worth $1,000 it is not worth $1. So that 
the difficulty is to put in force this system of yours. 1 
refrain from arguing it either pro or con. All 1 need say 
is that I have tried to keep up with it as I have with all 
else in the world that has been happening under my nose. 
I believe I have not been afraid to look into anything. I 
never condenm a man because he has something new in his 
head, or thinks he has ; and sometimes they only think they 
have, you know. I say to him, " You are the man I have 
been looking for, what is it you have in your head? Let 
us talk. Maybe I can let a little light into your head, or 
you can let a great flood of light into mine." I had the 
first edition of Henry George's book, and 1 have it yet. 
And while I was forced to admit that the system of taxa- 
tion it advocates was ideal, I could not concur in his chap- 
ter which advocated the putting of it in force at once, and 
thereby confiscating all the individual or private property 
in land which society by the present system had built up. 
And society has done the best it could, as all sorts of in- 
terests and all sorts of minds have settled on this method 
of private ownership of land, and of the buildings being 
considered a part of the land, and of the taxation being on 
the land and buildings together. Mr. Ingersoll wrote me 
and tells me that your object here is to further your 
propaganda, but only gradually, namely, to lessen year 
by year the valuation of the buildings on land, one twenty- 
fifth this year, one twenty-fifth next year, and so on. In 
that gradual way you see that in 25 years you would have 
eliminated the buildings entirely, and all the tax would 
fall on the land. So in place of killing at one stroke my 
friend over in Queens who paid $1,000 for his lot you 
would kill him gradually, one twenty-fifth each year, 
and in 25 years they have got him all done up. They say 
you would not feel it, it would be done so gradually. Now 
I have no objection to having this matter discussed here 
or elsewhere, and to join in. I have concealed nothing of 



219 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

my own opinions since 1 have been Mayor. A man told 
me last Thursday, he said, " Don't you go up to that place 
and talk on this subject. It will hurt you." I told him 
I was ready to be hurt, but that I did not think it would 
hurt me at all, that nobody ever hurt himself by having 
an open mind and being ready to consider and discuss 
things that concern human kind. I do not know whether 
you can bring it about. I do know that the chapter in 
Mr. George's book that proposed to do it right off the reel 
on the ground that all injustice should be remedied forth- 
with did not commend itself to me. While I might be 
willing to bear it myself I cannot help saying that many 
people would have a gross injustice done to them by put- 
ting into immediate operation any such system. But this 
method of gradually doing it is not open to the full force 
of that objection. If you can do it so gradually and so 
slyly that we neither feel it nor know it, why it may be we 
had better let you go ahead and do it. I don't think we 
will object very loud if we do not feel it or if it does not 
pinch us or do us any harm. Now, how could it do good, 
you ask me, to remove the tax on buildings and concen- 
trate it all on the land on which the buildings stand and 
the bare land not yet occupied? Why, they say it would 
do it this way; and it brings me back to what I said at 
the start. If buildings were no longer taxed that would 
stimulate people to build buildings; but when you clap a 
tax on buildings then people are not in a hurry to build 
them. They have to calculate it all out and see where 
they are coming out, where they can get the rents to pay 
interest and taxes. But if buildings were freed from 
taxes there would be more buildings put up ; and the more 
buildings put up the lower rents would be. So I am back 
now at the quitting point, that is to say, I am back to my 
starting point — that rents of buildings depend on supply 
and demand; therefore, any system of taxation which 
stimulates the building of buildings, which multiplies the 
number of buildings, automatically and necessarily lowers 



220 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

rents ; and it seems that is what you are driving at, to get 
lower rents. So go ahead. If you can do it I am satis- 
fied; but whether I have helped you any by coming up 
here I do not know. 

International Peace 

March 22, 1910. 

Gentlemen of the American Peace and Arbitration 
League: The civilization of the West seems to be 
reaching that point in its slow development along the lines 
of the precepts of Christianity when as a matter of hu- 
manitj% or, it may be, only of self-interest, or, it may be, 
of both, it is calling for universal international peace, and 
especially peace between the West and the East. We 
have to ask ourselves in a sober Christian spirit whether 
this can ever come about until the civilization of the West 
first recognize that the East has a civilization also. We 
shall never estabhsh peace with the East by persisting in 
the unkindness of calling it uncivilized. No univei'sal 
peace can be based on a bigoted or uncharitable conception 
by our civilization of theirs. That the civilization of the 
East is different to ours will not justify us in continuing 
to call the East uncivilized. It has a civilization all its 
own, a thousand years older than ours, and though quite 
different to ours, we ought in Christian charity to be able 
to perceive all, yea, the very much, that is good in it. The 
East was civihzed, was learned in the sciences, schooled 
in philosophy and the precepts of virtue, and liad the ele- 
gancies of life, including a splendid architecture, when our 
ancestors still ran naked in the woods and lived in holes in 
the ground. Our own sacred literature we borrowed or 
took from the East. All of it, Old Testament and New, 
was written by Asiatics, with the possible exception of the 
Gospel according to John. The civilization of the East 
may not have progressed, and may to some extent have 
retrograded, in the last thousand years. That depends, 
however, on the point of vieAV of what civilization is. From 

221 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

being warlike, the nations of the East generally during 
that period of time became unwarlike and peaceful na- 
tions, in fact, non-resistent on principle, like our Quakers, 
while the Christian nations of the West have continued 
warlike and aggressive all the while, most of the time in 
the name of Christianity itself, even when warring with 
one another. The constant aggressions of the West upon 
the peaceful and unwarlike East, instigated by commercial 
enterprise, if not commercial greed, have been invariably 
in the name of Christianity. We have taken possession 
of their choicest provinces and their best ports. And now 
in the progress of time we call for universal peace. 
Whether it is within God's Providence that the long 
gathering resentment engendered by Europe's trespasses 
on the Eastern nations can be allayed without war imless 
amends and restitution be first made, is a matter for sober 
thought. Let us hope and pray that justice be done, and 
that lasting compromises and adjustments be made, so 
that there be no need to resort to war for the redress of 
wrongs. That the mind of the East is receding from the 
ethical precepts which made it non-combatant is now mani- 
fest. Japan has already completely given them up, and 
emerged as a mighty combatant with the nations of the 
West. We are now pleased to say that she has become 
civilized and taken her place among the civilized nations 
of the West ; not because she has adopted the precepts of 
Christianity, or the fundamental precepts of our civiliza- 
tion, or abandoned any of her own, for she has not; but, 
it would seem, only because she has resorted to the use of 
gunpowder as strong and cannon as large as our own. 
The slow growth of the precepts of Him of Peace who 
walked and taught beneath the bended palms of Palestine 
2,000 years ago, may now at last in the slow progress of 
time be inspiring the nations of the West to advocate and 
proclaim peace on earth and good will to all men and all 
nations. Let us hope that the spirit of war and aggres- 
sion may not be aroused and grow up in the East while it 
is decaying and disappearing in the West. Let us do our 

222 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

part to avoid it bj^ seeing that Christian charity and justice 
be done to the East by the West, so that the peaceful 
spirit of a thousand years in the East may be retained in 
conjunction with the same growing spirit in the West, to 
the end that around the world there shall be a universal 
peace, founded on the universal brotherhood of all men 
and all nations, West and East, undisturbed by the acri- 
mony of religious tenet or national or racial arrogance. 
Though Christianity has done much it has been a slow 
growth. It took nearly 2,000 years of Christianity to 
strike the shackle from the slave. When it examines its 
own slow history, no reason will be found to view other 
civilizations otherwise than in the spirit of toleration and 
peace. This spirit alone can bring universal peace on 
earth. 

The Tariff, High Prices and Gold 

(Speech delivered February 8, 1912.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen: The question before 
the country is not one of free trade, but of levying our 
tariff on imports in a way which while it raises a sufficient 
revenue will work the least injury and do the most good 
to the people of the country as a whole. That idea took 
root among us when we were still British colonies 
strugghng for independence, and has grown ever since. 
No doubt it has branched out, now and again, into abuses 
and into favoritism by law to individuals or classes, which 
is the worst of all abuses in government. It is these abuses 
we want to do away with, and that is the issue. 

Tariff Changes Need to Be Gradual and Prudent 
But we may not prudently entertain the notion of 
doing away with our immense tariff structure at one 
stroke. In that way we would create disorder and panic, 
and do great harm to honest business and honest people. 
Our tariff system has been long in the building— even from 
colonial days, as I have said. To pull it down all at once 
would be a revolution, and lead to great disasters. When 

223 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

society creates any system by law, and especially after it 
has fostered it for a long time, and every one has con- 
formed to it, society should not do away with it except in a 
way so well considered and gradual as to do no unreason- 
able harm to individuals and to the community. Even a 
tethered bull who has wound around his stake while 
grazing until he has brought his nose up against it, has to 
slowly unwind again sooner than tear his nose to pieces in 
an effort to get away. 

History of Building Up of Our Tariff System 

I say our tariff system again, for system it is. It may 
serve a purpose amidst so much talk to see how our tariff 
system, with all of its favoritisms, injustices and crudities, 
has gradually grown up. It is the result of repeated votes 
of the country on the question. There are signs of a real- 
izing sense throughout the country that we have gone to 
extremes and ought to recede. 

After we had achieved independence as a nation, one 
of our first aspirations was not to remain dependent on 
foreign countries for manufactured articles. The people 
of the colonies had been subjected to that condition — had 
been admonished that they should be agriculturists and 
depend on the mother country for manufactured goods — 
and were much averse to it. That was one of their griev- 
ances. Hence we find that the tariff law of 1789 — the 
first passed after the adoption of the constitution — was 
drawn for protection as well as to raise revenue. The next 
tariff act, that of 1794, went still further in the direction 
of protection against foreign imports and in favor of our 
small struggling home industries. The tariff act of 1816 
continued in the same direction. And so it went on with- 
out much if any objection until after 1830, when some 
States and localities began to strongly object that since 
they were solely agricultural they were receiving no bene- 
fit from this tariff system. The matter was brought into 
party contentions in that way. There followed some re- 
duction of tariff duties. The tariff act of 1857 went in 

224 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

that direction and made wool free. The commercial hard 
times which ensued made the tariff question still more 
acute. It became more than ever a party question. But 
the extremes to which tariff taxation w^as to attain later 
were not then thought of. I do not suppose that Hamilton, 
and later Clay, who favored a reasonable protection, ever 
foresaw the unscientific extremes it was to grow to. 

War Tariffs 

In 1861 the so-called ^Morrill Tariff Act was passed. 
It was based on the principle of protection. During the 
Civil War duties were put on and raised to get more 
revenue, but also with an eye to protection. The Act of 
1864 went still further, and into high protection, by which 
I mean more than the protection of American wages. 
After the close of the war manufacturers had grown so 
used to high protective tariffs that they loudly objected 
to any proposal to reduce them. These tariffs did more 
than protect wages — they added to profits. The Act of 
1883 continued in the line of high protection. In the Til- 
den presidential campaign the Democratic platform de- 
clared that all Custom House taxation should be for rev- 
enue only, and he won, so great was the dissatisfaction 
with tariffs that were deemed unconscionable. Cleveland 
was elected eight years later, namely, in 1884. His party 
won not so much on the tariff, or any other issue, it may 
be, as on things that entered into the personal honesty of 
the two candidates, for the vote was a close one. On ac- 
count of certain things in the past career of Mr. Blaine, 
he was unacceptable to a large number in his own party. 
When Mr. Cleveland ran the second time the issue was 
distinctly on the protective tariff, but he was beaten. My 
own observation at the time was that many Democrats 
feared that Mr. Cleveland really wanted free trade, and 
were not ready to go so far, and that he was beaten in 
that way. During the ensuing Republican administration 
under President Harrison, the McKinley Tariff Act was 
passed. It w^ent to the extreme of high protection, and 

225 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

alarmed and alienated those who no more wanted the ex- 
treme of protection than the extreme of free trade. At 
the next election Mr. Cleveland came in as President 
again on the issue of tariff reduction. Then followed the 
Wilson Tariff Act. It was the result of compromises. It 
was found that Democratic Representatives and Senators 
from States having protected interests were not always 
willing to give up such protection. I need only mention 
the case of sugar, without raking up the scandal which 
grew out of the defeat by the votes of Democratic Rep- 
resentatives and Senators of the proposal to put it on the 
free hst. What occurred during that Congress made men 
see how largely this tariff question is local and selfish. 
When the Republicans came in at the next election under 
McKinley the Dingley Tariff Act was passed. Like the 
McKinley Act it was based on high protection. We have 
since had the Payne Act, which follows the McKinley 
and Dingley Acts. It is not easy to say that the tariff 
question had any influence in the last three Presidential 
elections. They were complicated by other issues, that of 
joint metallic money being paramount and controlling in 
at least one of them. 

Should Not Create Favoritism or Injustice 

This review suffices to remind us that the question 
which confronts us is not one of free trade, but of a judi- 
cious but firm reduction of the tariff. All of its extremes 
should be cut out. Free trade is a long way off. We must 
have sufficient revenue, and, therefore, an import tariff 
tax. But it should be so applied as to produce no injus- 
tice or favoritism. 

Let us then stand to the assertion of principle that we 
recognize no excuse for a protective tariff on any article 
except to protect the American workingman from having 
his wages run down to the level of wages in the country 
which produces that article. When a tariff tax goes be- 
yond this, the excess should be cut off. Such excess does 
not benefit the workingman. It makes every one pay to 

226 



MAYOR GAYNQR>S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

aggrandize a few. It is a scandalous thing to have a tariff 
tax on manufactured articles so high as to enahle the man- 
ufacturer of such articles in this country to sell them 
ahroad at a profit at a price lower than is exacted in this 
country. 

And we must stand to this further principle, namely, 
that, except for revenue only, there is no excuse at all for a 
tariff tax on imported articles which, from peculiarities of 
soil or clime, or any other special and abiding cause, we 
cannot produce at all, or cannot produce enough of them 
for our consumption. If our lands are generally of so high 
a grade, for instance, that they are put to a more profitable 
use than sheep raising, and therefore we do not and in the 
nature of things will not produce wool enough for our own 
use, then there should be no tariff on wool, unless out of 
necessity for revenue. And so on all down the list. 

Enlightened Judgment of Country to Decide 

Let the question be submitted to the enlightened judg- 
ment of the country. Mark well that public opinion on 
the subject has now grown to be stronger than mere party 
opinion. I feel that I am not mistaken in this. 

President McKinley saw plainly that the gathering 
sentiment of the nation would not put up any longer with 
a protective tariff which goes beyond protection to Ameri- 
can wages, and M^as preparing to yield thereto. Let me 
quote what he said in his speech at the Buffalo Exposition 
immediately before his unfortunate assassination : 

" We must not repose in fancied security that 
we can forever sell everything and buy little or 
nothing. If such a thing were possible, it would 
not be best for us or for those with whom we deal. 
We should take from our customers such of their 
products as we can use without harm to our indus- 
tries and labor. Reciprocity is the natural out- 
growth of our wonderful industrial development 
under the domestic policy now firmly established. 
What w'e produce beyond our domestic consump- 

227 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

tion must have a vent abroad. The excess must be 
relieved through a foreign outlet, and we should 
sell anywhere we can and buy wherever the buying 
will enlarge our sales and productions, and thereby 
make a greater demand for home labor. The pe- 
riod of exclusiveness is past. The expansion of our 
trade and commerce is the pressing problem. Com- 
mercial wars are unprofitable. A policy of good 
will and friendly trade relations will prevent re- 
prisals. Reciprocity treaties are in harmony with 
the spirit of the times. Measures of retaliation are 
not. If perchance some of our tariffs are no longer 
needed for revenue or to encourage and protect 
our industries at home, why should they not be 
employed to extend and promote our markets 
abroad?" 

Public opinion is now ripe for the change. Let us not 
disappoint it. Let us go with it. I do not say let us lead 
it. Enlightened public opinion in tliis country is such 
that the statesman does enough who divines it, keeps up 
with it and conforms to it. 

High Prices 

The kindred subject which you have assigned to me 
in connection with the tariff is that of high prices. Now, 
of course, a protective tariff raises prices. That is what 
it is designed for. That is the reason why it is levied. But 
in view of the complaint about present high prices, it 
should in justice be pointed out that our tariff is not wholly 
responsible therefor. The tariff is not responsible for the 
extent to which prices have risen since 1896, which, I be- 
lieve, was the year in which the present rise in prices set 
in. The rise since that year has been general in Europe 
as well as here. The cause, whatever it is, is world-wide. 
It cannot therefore be said to be the tariff in this country. 
Moreover, as the tariff did not produce these high prices 
in former years, there seems to be no reason to lay them 

22S 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

to the tariff now. The protective tariff is undoubtedly re- 
sponsible for the raising of prices. But there are other 
causes. May I also suggest that it would be an interesting 
study to find out whether prices have risen most on pro- 
tected or unprotected articles since 1896. 

The Trusts and Prices 

We must therefore look to other causes for jjresent 
high prices. Some lay them to what we call the trusts — a 
word which I wish we could get rid of, for it is very vague, 
and very few seem to know just what it means. A trust 
means a combination into one partnership or under one 
management, as a business unit, of all, or of a predominant 
number, of the corporations engaged in any particular 
manufacture. The first combinations of this kind were 
called trusts, because they were formed under trust agree- 
ments, there then being no statute to enable them to form. 
The first we know of were the sugar trust and the oil 
trust. All of the 16 sugar refinery corporations combined 
under an agreement by which trustees were appointed to 
run them all as a business unit, instead of their being run 
separately and in competition as theretofore. Under the 
agreement the stock holders in the refinery corporations 
surrendered their stock to these trustees, who issued them 
trust certificates therefor instead. The Standard Oil trust 
was formed in exactty the same way. The then existing 49 
separate Standard Oil corporations which were dispersed 
throughout the country were massed into one business unit 
by the very same kind of a trust agreement as that of the 
sugar trust. But in this State our highest court finally 
decided that the sugar trust was illegal and had to disband. 
That was in 1892, I think. It based its decision on a very 
simple ground. It held that corporations could not be- 
come co-partners with each other, or unite in any way 
together for business purposes, but that each had to do 
business separately. It decided that only individuals could 
become co-partners. We have nothing to fear from co- 

229 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

partnerships of individuals, because individuals die, and 
co-partnerships of individuals therefore last only a short 
time as a rule. But corporations do not die. Their life is 
perpetual, as a rule. The Court pointed out that the com- 
mon law of the land did not allow them to become co- 
partners or unite together for business purposes ; that they 
are mere artificial creations of statute, and that as no 
statute allowed them to unite together, they could not do 
so. At about the same time the liighest court in the State 
of Ohio made the very same decision with regard to the 
Standard Oil trust. Both of these trusts were in that way 
broken up. But straightway the State of New Jersey 
passed a statute enabling corporations to unite and become 
a business unit, just as the sugar trust and the oil trust 
were. The device of that statute is very simple. It 
allowed corporations to be created to own the stock of any 
number of other corporations. We have become used to 
calling such a corporation a holding company. It owns 
and holds the stock of other corporations. Both the sugar 
corporations and the standard oil corporations availed 
themselves of this statute. A sugar corporation was 
formed in New Jersey and the stocks of all these sugar 
refining companies, liitherto for a time held by trustees, 
as I have stated were transferred to it, in return for which 
it issued its stock to the stockholders, who thus surrendered 
their stock. In the very same way a new Standard Oil 
Company was formed under this statute in New Jersey, to 
which was turned over all the stock of the said Standard 
Oil companies. And in this way all of the Standard Oil 
companies were again massed as a business unit, and all 
of the sugar corporations were massed as a business unit. 
The courts had declared them to be illegal as a combination 
under the said trust agreements, as I have stated, and then 
the Legislature of the State of New Jersey stepped in and 
passed a law which enabled them to legahze and perpetu- 
ate themselves as a combination or business unit by means 
of a holding company. And so they continue to this day. 
And then followed the formation of many other trusts in 

230 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

the same way. Some other States passed a law similar to 
that of New Jersey. But fom'-fifths of the trusts of this 
country are organized and exist under this New Jersey 
statute. You already perceive what I am coming at, 
namely, how easy it is to get rid of the trusts if we want to. 
It is only necessary to repeal that New Jersey statute, 
and the similar statutes which were passed in some of the 
other States. The outcry against these trusts seems to be 
quite as loud over in New Jersey as anywhere else in the 
country. That being so, why is it that that New Jersey 
statute has not been repealed before this? Why is it that 
no one in office or out of office over in New Jersey has 
asked the New Jersey Legislature to repeal it ? No Gov- 
ernor has sent a message to the Legislature of any State 
which has this statute calhng for its repeal so far as I 
have heard. From wliich some people might deduce that 
the cry against the trusts is wholly insincere. Since they 
can be abolished so easily, do you not tliink that they ought 
to be, or else that those that fail to even try to repeal them 
should stop crying out against them at the top of their 
voices? We must not lay ourselves open to the charge of 
being mere demagogues. If the people want the trusts 
broken up or prevented they need only to elect Governors 
and legislators who will carry out their will. 

The question to what extent trusts are responsible for 
present high prices should be carefully considered. No 
party, no statesman, no sensible man, should follow mere 
clamor, or try to advantage by it. I have not been able to 
find any trustworthy literature in which the question has 
been carefully considered. Monopohes no doubt tend to 
raise prices, and the trusts, which are monopohes, no 
doubt, therefore, tend to raise prices. It were much better 
if we used this hard word monopoly instead of this soft 
and rather obscure word trust, and then people would 
understand us. It might also be well to examine whether 
present prices are highest on trust articles or other articles. 
That does not seem to have been carefully examined into, 
either. 

231 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Economic Laws Govern Prices 
But in a study of this subject it is necessary to note 
that the notion which some have that trusts can run prices 
up or down as they see fit, and to the extent they see fit, is 
fallacious. A manufacturer has to buy the raw material 
wliich he manufactures into an article which he sells. If 
it were possible for a manufacturer, having a monopoly, to 
run the price he j)ays for the raw material down as low 
as he likes, and the price at wliich he sells the finished 
product up as high as he hkes, he would of course have the 
best of us entirely and be able to make any profit he saw fit. 
But he can do neither of these things. There are economic 
laws which prevent it; and you know that economic laws 
are as regular as the laws of the seasons, or the revolutions 
of the earth, if you let them have free play. There is an 
economic point below which the manufacturer, monopolist 
though he may be, cannot go in buying the raw material 
without injuring himself. The producer of the raw mate- 
rial has to receive enough for it to pay the cost of produc- 
tion and also make a profit to enable liim to support him- 
self. As soon as the selling price goes below that he 
ceases to grow or produce the article; he cannot or -will 
not continue to do it at a loss or without a profit. In that 
way the production of that article diminishes, and to such 
an extent that the manufacturer has to raise his price in 
order to stimulate its production, so that he can get enough 
of it for his manufacture. Y'ou therefore see there is an 
economic point below which he cannot force down the price 
of raw material without injuring himself. And in the 
same way there is an economic point above which he can- 
not raise his sale price of the finished product without hurt- 
ing himself. If he puts the price up too high the con- 
sumption of it will fall off. Some will buy one-third less, 
some one-half less, and some will do without it entirely. 
In that way the manufacturer is obliged to lower his sale 
price so as to sell his finished product and prevent a loss. 
But there is a zone between these two outlying prices, that 
for the raw material and that for the finished product, in 

232 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



which monopolies may cause the price to fluctuate. How 
wide that zone is I cannot now stop to closely define. I 
imagine it is somewhat wider than my hand, however. But 
all I wanted to point out is that the trusts or monopolies 
are controlled by certain economic laws which prevent 
them from doing absolutely as they see fit with prices. 
These laws keep them within a restricted zone at least. 
But ^vithin that zone they can do much extortion. 

Large Gold Production Causes High Prices 

Looking further for the cause of present high prices, 
I am not able to doubt that the principal cause is the great 
and ever increasing output of gold since 1883. The output 
in 1883 was only $95,000,000 in round numbers. Ever 
since it has increased by leaps and bounds, until its pro- 
duction in 1909 reached the enormous sum of $454,000,000 
in round numbers. The exact statistics for the last two 
years are not at hand, but it is known that they will show 
a still growing increase. In fine, the gross output of gold 
since 1883 is over $7,000,000,000 (seven bilHons of dol- 
lars). The world has had other periods of great produc- 
tion of the money metals, but never anything so great and 
continuous as this. 

And every such period has been one of high and ad- 
vancing prices and prosperity. High and advancing prices 
do not mean hard times, but good times, if the cause be a 
natural one. But, on the other hand, hard times are 
marked by low and falKng prices. That is the history of 
commerce and the world. No one but a gambler can con- 
tinue to do business on a falHng market. If you have to 
sell to-morrow at a price lower than you pay to-day, it is 
only a question of time when you shall have to quit. His- 
tory affords examples of the effect of a large production 
of money metal on business and prices. It has always 
brought high prices and prosperity. To run prices up arti- 
ficially by combinations, monopolies, unscientific laws 
wliich thwart or fetter commerce, or the hke, is an evil. 
But if they go up from natural causes they are not an evil. 

233 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

They are normal and natural, and the normal and natural 
are good in this world. The influx of the money metals 
into Europe caused by their first discovery on this conti- 
nent revived commerce, raised prices and produced a long 
period of prosperity. In the period of 20 years from 1789 
to 1809 prices doubled on account of the production of the 
money metals, business revived and thrived, and prosperity 
was on every hand. The same result was produced by the 
great output of gold from the mines of California and 
Australia, beginning with 1849. There are men still living 
who remember it. You may ask why rising prices did not 
set in right after 1883, when the present period of large 
output of gold set in, instead of not showing themselves 
until about 1896, if the output of gold is their cause. The 
answer is, first, that rising prices do not set in at once or 
concurrently with the increase in gold output, but not until 
some years after such increase sets in, and a large stock 
of gold has accumulated therefrom; and, second, because 
silver was demonetized throughout most of the world; 
that is, put out of use as money during the period from 
1883 to 1896, metal money being thereby largely reduced. 
But that reduction was finally more than made up by the 
production of gold and in due order prices began to rise 
because of the increase in money metal, although such 
metal had been reduced to gold only. 

The value of any given product depends upon its quan- 
tity. If potatoes or corn are short or scarce, their price 
goes up. The same is just as true of gold. Its value, like 
the value of other products, depends on its quantity and 
the cost of its production. Hence, the greater the output 
of gold and the cheaper the cost of its production, the 
less its value grows in relation to other products. The 
gold in the dollar grows of less value in relation to the 
value of other cormnodities, and its exchangeable value or 
purchasing power therefore grows less. It buys less corn 
or potatoes because it is worth less. In other words you 
have to give more money than formerly to buy the same 
thing or amount thereof. It takes more gold to purchase 

234 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



a given amount of wheat, or potatoes, or wool because 
gold by reason of its plenty or over plenty has grown less 
valuable. In place of saying prices are higher we could 
express the same idea with as much, or even more, ac- 
curacy, by saying money is lower, and that means gold 
money, for gold is now the sole equation of all moneys and 
all values. 

The time may come when the present great output of 
gold will have reached its highest point, although some 
say not. They say that the sources of gold, including the 
waters of the ocean, are so great that it is more likely that 
the time will come when gold will be so plentiful and 
therefore so cheap that it will have to be done away with as 
money. But if instead the time comes when its production 
decreases and falls off, lower and lower, year after year, 
then after some years, or a few years, the contraction of 
gold will begin to have its natural effect, and prices will 
begin to fall, and continue to fall year after year. Then 
everybody will be complaining of low and falling prices, 
the same as some are now complaining of high and rising 
prices. Will not that period of low and falhng prices be 
hard times ? What say you ? Many people still alive have 
gone through such a period, and know the hard times 
brought by low and falling prices. Let none of us there- 
fore be so certain that high prices are an evil. Every one 
wants a high price for what he has to sell. But he natur- 
ally wants to pay low prices for the things he has to buy 
to live. He cannot make economic laws work that way. 
There must necessarily be a general level of prices, de- 
pendent on supply and demand of products, including 
gold. 

What Would Jefferson Say 

(Speech at the Jefferson Day Banquet, April 13, 1912.) 

Gentlemen of the National Democratic Club : " What 
would Jefferson say?" is the toast you give me. Yes, 

235 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

what would Jefferson say? He was a progressive man, 
but prudent and careful. He picked his steps. He did 
nothing headlong. But he was conscious that the world 
moves, and he tried to move with it. He was a radical, if 
you will, but not the kind of radical who wants to pull 
everything up by the roots, or every pillar down, before 
he has something better to plant or put in its stead. He 
was neither demagogue, nor humbug, nor self-seeker. He 
wanted to do good to his fellow men, and knew that good 
in this world was growth, not stagnation. He knew that 
all good growth, physical, mental or moral, was gradual 
and often slow growth. How gradually the tree grows 
and matures, and the blade of wheat, and this body of 
ours, and how long and patiently the Almighty sat brood- 
ing over this world of ours before it was fit. And in the 
same way how gradually things mental and moral grow 
and mature. He knew that the universal law in all tilings 
was either growth or decay. He only smiled at the stupid 
conservatism which proclaims that everything is right just 
as it is, and has held up its hands and cried out in all 
ages, " Don't disturb the existing order of things." He 
knew that the existing order of things is often a bad, and 
sometimes the worst possible order of things. The exist- 
ing order of things in this country even within the memory 
of many still living was that one human being might own 
another. He was a progressive, but felt his way, and 
blazed his way, all the time that we might follow. 

Obstructive Court Decisions 

Yes, what would Jefferson say of things to-day? 

There is a provision in all of our constitutions, national 
and state, that no one shall be deprived of life, liberty or 
property without due process of law, or except by the law 
of the land, as it is sometimes expressed. This safeguard 
is not new with us. We derived it from England. It is 
expressed in Magna Charta. Nor is it peculiar to English- 
spealdng countries. It is common in one form or another 
to every civilized government. No one ever thought of 

236 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

giving it anything but its plain meaning until in recent 
years, since 1870, in this country. Then some court at- 
tributed an indirect meaning to these words liberty and 
property. The phrase to deprive one of his liberty 
had always been miderstood to mean to interfere with the 
liberty of the person, to put one under physical restraint 
by some form of interference, arrest or imprisonment. 
And to dej)rive one of his property had a similar plain 
meaning. No one in England or in any other place except 
here has ever thought of their having any other meaning. 
But since 1870 in this country courts have been interpret- 
ing these words of the Constitution in their widest sense. 
And this constitutional exegesis has developed so rapidly 
that necessary social and economic progress is being 
blocked by court decisions. What would Jefferson say 
to it? We know what he would say. He opposed all 
forced constitutional interpretations by the courts while he 
was living, and said that if allowed to run their course the 
Constitution and our form of government would be sapped 
and mined by the courts in their natural tendency to ag- 
grandize themselves with power over the legislative and 
executive branches of government. 

Tenement House Tobacco Case 

Let me give examples of the extremes to which these 
decisions have gone. In this State we passed a law that 
tobacco should not be manufactured in the Hving rooms 
of tenement houses. The enlightened sentiment of the 
people of the State was that this was a humane health and 
comfort measure. It was thought that children should 
not be born and brought up in the fumes and odors of to- 
bacco. But our Court of Appeals would not have it. The 
statute took away from the tenant his " liberty " to work 
at what he liked in his tenement, and therefore violated the 
said constitutional provision, said the Court. In the same 
way the Court said it deprived him of his property, 
namely, his leasehold, to the extent that it deprived him 
of one use of it. 

237 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Underground Bake Ovens Case 

Afterwards our Legislature passed a statute regulat- 
ing the sanitary condition of our underground bake ovens. 
They are hot and unhealthy places to work in, and the 
bread made in them may easily be unsanitary. The work 
in them is principally during the night. The statute fixed 
ten hours in twenty-four as the maximum hours of work. 
The United States Supreme Court declared this uncon- 
stitutional and void for depriving journeymen bakers of 
the " liberty " of working all night, if they choose, in hot 
underground bake ovens. 

Women Night Work Case 

Next our Legislature passed an act that women should 
not be employed in factories between 9 o'clock at night and 
6 o'clock in the morning. Enlightened public sentiment 
was that the health of our women and of their offspring 
would be conserved by this law. But our Court of Ap- 
peals declared that it deprived women of their " liberty " 
to work all night, or as long as they liked in factories. To 
such a use indeed did they stretch this sacred word liberty. 

Employers' Liability Case 

Last year our Court of Appeals declared unconstitu- 
tional and void the Employers' Liability Act passed by 
our Legislature the year before. It deprived the employer 
of his property without due process of law, said the Court. 
Thirty-two different governments of the world, including 
England, have such laws, and have had them for many 
years. Even Russia has a model one. Prussia had one 
as early as 1847. Nowhere in the world except here did 
any one ever suggest that such a law takes the employer's 
property without due process of law. Nor do we see how 
it does. The damages for injuries and manglings and 
deaths of the workers from explosives, machinery, and so 
on, which the employer would pay would simply enter into 
the cost of production, the same as the cost and repair ex- 

288 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

pense of machinery, and be included in the price we would 
pay for the finished product. How is that taking the 
property of the employer at all? And yet this statute 
which did away with the semi-barbarous rules of the com- 
mon law that the worker has to take all the natural or in- 
herent risks in his employment, including that of negli- 
gence by any fellow worker, which have been done away 
with even in England whence we took such rules, and pro- 
vided for a just system of compensation for death and in- 
juries from such risks, the same as is done everywhere in 
the civilized world except in this country, was struck down 
on the forced and false construction of this constitutional 
provision. 

Such Decisions Cause Growth or Socialism 
What would Jefferson say to such a state of things? 
He would say, " Beware. Unless you keep pace with the 
social and economic progress of humanity, and do these 
things, they will be done over your heads." It is no won- 
der that we have a state of unrest, and that what is called 
Socialism is growing. The judges who are thus putting 
themselves in the way of just and humane laws, called for 
by the spirit of Christianity and social progress, say that 
it is their duty " to protect the populace from themselves." 
Just think of that. When and where and how did we ever 
confer any such mission as that upon them? Who set them 
up to protect us from ourselves? We elect Legislatures 
to carry out our will by laws. 

Recaix or Nullify Such Decisions 
The Legislature which has just adjourned passed a 
proposed constitutional amendment to nullify or recall this 
Employers' Liability decision, and if the incoming Legis- 
lature also passes it, it will be submitted to a vote of the 
people of the state a year from next fall. And some are 
crying out against this as revolutionary. What do they 
mean? Our constitutions are adopted by vote of the peo- 
ple, and the people have the right to amend them in the 
same way when they see fit. And that is what they have 

239 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

been doing from the beginning. And they have frequently 
overruled or recalled obnoxious decisions of the courts in 
that way. And why should they not? In 1905 the people 
of this state overruled or recalled by a constitutional 
amendment four or five decisions of our highest court de- 
claring unconstitutional and void the statutes requiring 
payment by contractors of the prevailing rate of wages on 
state and municipal works, and fixing the maximum hours 
for a day's work. The other day a lot of lawyers put forth 
a statement warning the community against changes of 
the constitution by popular vote. What do they mean? 

Favoritism in Railroad Freight Rates 

And what would Jefferson say about some other things 
now in the minds of many in this country? 

The railroads are not private roads but public high- 
ways. That is the first law of their being. The land for 
them was taken under the eminent domain power of gov- 
ernment to take property for public use. It was taken for 
a public use, namely for public highways. It could not be 
taken for private use. What would Jefferson say to fav- 
oritism in freight rates to shippers on these public high- 
waj^s instead of the same rate being exacted of all alike? 
What would he say to favorite individuals or coteries being 
charged freight rates so much lower than their business 
rivals as to enable them to drive such rivals out of business 
by under-selling them that much in the markets, and there- 
by creating monopolies in themselves ? Would he not say 
that the general freight agent of every railroad in the 
country ought to be appointed by government if necessary 
to do away with such a crying wrong? Such agent need 
not fix the rates, but his duty would be to see that there 
was only one rate for all in like case — that every one paid 
the same rate. 

The Trust or Holding Companies 

And what would Jefferson say about the so-called 
trusts, if I mav use that misnomer? 

240 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

In several states, and also in the District of Columbia, 
there are statutes enabling corjwrations to be formed to 
own, hold and vote on the stock of other corporations with- 
out limit. This is what we call the " holding company." 
It is the " trust." The stock certificates of all the corpora- 
tions engaged in the same Idnd of business, such as sugar 
refining, for example, can be transferred to such a hold- 
ing company, and in that way all of such corporations are 
brought under one management and control, and made 
a single business unit, thereby doing away with all com- 
petition and rivalry among them, and enabling the holding 
company to raise prices to the consumer, more or less. 
What would Jefferson say to doing away with competition 
among corporations in the same line of business and in that 
way? I think he would say the holding company statutes 
should never have been passed, and ought to be repealed 
by degrees, or superseded by a national corporation law 
under which no such thing would be permitted. Under 
these holding company statutes, including the one for the 
District of Columbia, passed by the National Congress 
itself, these unions of corporations engaged in the same 
business may be lawfully formed. That is what these 
statutes were passed for. But after corporations are thus 
united under a holding company the United States brings 
suits to dissolve them for being monopolies and in restraint 
of trade. What would Jefferson say to such folly and such 
a game of cross purposes as that ? What would he say to 
passing statutes to enable such combinations to be formed 
and then bring suits to break them up? Would he not 
say, *' If such combinations are inherently injurious by 
destroying competition, and interrupting the freedom of 
trade, why do you not repeal the statutes under which they 
are formed?" These combinations are our own artificial 
creations. They could not exist except for these statutes. 
If we do not want them we have only to repeal the laws 
permitting them to be created. First, business was done 
by the individual. Next, in order to have larger capital 
and business, partnerships of individuals came into vogue. 

241 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Combination could go no further than this without the aid 
of some legal device. Then statutes were passed for the 
creation of corporations — mere artificial entities — so that 
there could be more capital combined to produce larger 
business, and also to do away with the inconvenience and 
breaking up of business partnerships caused by the death 
of one partner after another and the distribution of their 
estates. But these corporations which were allowed by 
statute could not unite together as partners or in any way 
for business purposes. Each had to stand alone and do 
business alone. Next these holding company statutes were 
passed — the first one not until 1885 — enabling corpora- 
tions to unite or be combined as a business unit under a 
holding company in the way I have stated. These are the 
different stages leading up to the gigantic unions of cor- 
porations which we now have. Should there be statutes 
permitting these combinations of corporations ? Now that 
they have been permitted for a full generation the question 
is more difficult. But what would Jefferson say of these 
mighty combinations, with revenues and capital and lia- 
bilities even larger than those of the United States Govern- 
ment itself? Would he say that they ought to be permitted 
to exist and to grow? In the end every one in the country 
will have ceased to be an independent business entity, and 
will be a mere servant of one of these great concerns if they 
continue. Does that tend to make men better citizens, or 
weak and indifferent ones, by reason of a feeling of de- 
pendence and servitude? What would Jefferson say? 

Periodical Constitutional Conventions 

What would Jefferson say to have the Constitution of 
the United States amended so that every 20 years there 
would have to be a new constitutional convention to re- 
port amendments to the Constitution to be submitted to 
the vote of the people? No one doubts that constitutions 
should not be changed in a hurry or rashly, but all the 
same as time goes on, and conditions change, constitutions 
of government need to be changed. Lincoln said that a 

242 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

constitution should not outlast a generation. He did not 
mean that at the end of that time the whole instrument 
should go by the board. He meant that it would probably 
need to be amended by that time. Our States have very 
generally recognized this by putting requirements in their 
constitutions that constitutional conventions be held at 
stated intervals. It is now very cumbersome and difficult 
to amend the Federal Constitution. Should we not have 
it amended so as to call for constitutional conventions at 
stated periods? Would not Jefferson say yea 



? 



Do Our Courts Stand in the Way of Social and 

Economic Justice, and If So, 

By What Authority? 

(Address Before the Yale Forum, at Yale University, New Haven, 

Connecticut, May 7, 1912.) 

President Hadley, Governor Baldwin, Ladies and 
Gentlemen: I had some misgivings about coming here 
at all and leaving the busy life which surrounds me in the 
city of New York, but I thought I might possibly say 
a few words of some interest to you older people and of 
some guidance to you young men, and especially to you 
young men who are studying law. The subject is, " Do 
our courts stand in the way of social and economic jus- 
tice — and if so, by what authority? " I suppose we may 
in this country question even the authority of the courts 
if we see fit. We have outgrown the divinity of kings 
and of legislatures and executives, and I suppose we have 
a right to outgrow the divinity of courts too if we see fit, 
having at the same time due respect for them, y* The sub- 
ject is a very broad one^x Perhaps the phrase " distribu-^ 
tive justice " might express it more fully. And when I 
say " distributive justice " I do not mean merely the jus- 
tice administered in the courts, but distributive justice in 
the widest sense. You young men growing up to the bar, 
of all other men, should have this distributive justice in 

243 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

mind. That mere rule of thumb justice which we asso- 
ciate with the administration of the law in the courts falls 
far short of expressing what I mean. The first duty of 
government, the prime duty of government, is distributive 
justice to all. That means justice in its widest sense, the 
social and economic sense as well as the legal sense. If 
government fails in that it fails at the essential point and 
has no excuse for existence. Prosperity does not depend 
wholly on the amount of the total product. It depends 
even more largely upon the just distribution of the total 
product among those who produce it. I should define 
prosperity to be the highest production the community 
is capable of consistent with the mental, moral and phys- 
ical health and growth of its members, accompanied by 
a just distribution of the total product among those who 
produce it. I do not mean by that share and share alike 
to every one. I mean distribution according to the pro- 
ductive capacity of each, whether that capacity be mental 
or physical, or both. Distributive justice also means that 
those engaged in the production shall be otherwise fairly 
dealt ^^-ith — that they be not forced to work an undue 
number of hours, that they have proper machinerj^ and 
of all things that they be paid for the injuries which they 
receive in their work without their wilful fault, especially 
from the dangerous machinery of our times. That enters 
into distributive justice. In what I have to say all these 
things enter. If the courts set themselves up against this A 
distributive justice then the courts are not fulfilling theiry 
office. 

I do not come here to pass any undue criticism upon 
the courts. I was a Judge myself you know for sixteen 
years and I have to be careful and not say too much. 
And I have Judge Baldwin here behind me too, which 
makes me more or less circumspect, if not nervous. Nor 
do I come here to advocate the recall of the judiciary. I 
see that frightens none of you, however. Down my way 
it seems to frighten some people to mention it. It doesn't 
frighten me a particle. I am not here to advocate it. But 

244 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND S PEECHES 

strangely enough every time I say anything on the subject 
on which I speak to you to-night I see great headhnes 
the next day in that sort of newspaper which we have 
down in New York — I don't know whether vou know 
much about it — I see great headhnes, " The Mayor ad- 
vocates the recall of the judiciary," when I have never 
said a word to that effect. In fact I am not in favor 
of the recall at all; I may as well relieve your minds 
by saying that right off. Here in the East with our 
short terms of office — and I think the like is the case 
all over the country — I do not see what need we have of 
the recall of officials. Their terms are up quick enough 
and they can be recalled by being left at home. I believe 
Judge Baldwin's term even is only two years as Governor. 
Why, you would not have time to recall him if you wanted 
to. And then when you did j^ou would find out you had 
made a mistake. But this I have to sav, that if the recall 
is to be ado])ted I do not wish to see the Judges excluded 
from it. Every time we have a dinner of the Judges in 
New York, or a meeting, they denounce the recall of the 
Judges. It seems to be all right to them for everybody 
else to be recalled. At all events they say nothing about 
that. And yet their terms are for fourteen years, and if 
anybody down there is to be recalled, I say include the 
Judges. This thing of having a recall held over them, 
the Judges say, might intimidate them so that they would 
make wrong decisions. But if it would intimidate the 
Judges, I think it might intimidate some of the rest of us 
too, might it not? And we might do something that we 
would be sorry for afterwards and that the people would 
be sorry for too. I did not rim the danger that any of 
you would say that I am for the recall of the Judges, and 
it was hardly worth while to speak about those newspapers 
which report everything by headlines, and report it wrong 
at that. We might as well let them alone. I knew of a 
great big husband once with a little bit of a wife, and she 
used to beat him and mistreat him. One of the neighbors 
saw her at him one day, and asked, " Why do you submit to 

245 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

that? " and he says, " Why it doesn't hurt me and it 
pleases Mary Ann." That would apply to some of our 
New Y^ork newspapers; but I dare say to no newspaper 
up here. That is why I am so free to talk about it away 
from home. 

Now, to come closer to my subject whether the Judges 
stand in the way in this country of economic and social 
reform, I want to say to you at the outset that what I have 
to say hinges on a constitutional provision. And that con- 
stitutional provision, my young law school friends, is the 
one which prescribes that " no one's life, liberty or prop- 
erty shall be taken except by due process of law," or, as 
it is sometimes expressed, " except by the law of the land " 
— phrases which mean the same thing. Now that consti- 
tutional safeguard is in every one of the fundamental in- 
struments of government in this country, national and 
state, which we call constitutions of government. It was 
put in these fundamental instruments at the beginning. 
It was not in the national constitution at its first adoption, 
but certain states insisted, and it and others were put in 
a very few years afterwards. But this safeguard of which 
I speak is not peculiar to this country. It can be traced 
back far. It has its foundation even in Magna Charta. 
It is there in substance as all the courts point out. It runs 
through British constitutional history. Nor is it peculiar 
to English or American constitutional law or history. A 
similar safeguard is to be found in every civilized govern- 
ment in the world, expressed in one form or another. We 
sometimes run away with the notion that this safeguard 
is only in English and American history. Not at all. 
They have it all over Europe, that no one's life, liberty 
or property shall be taken except in a lawful way, that is 
to say, by due process of law. 

But what I call your attention to is that the courts in 
this country, beginning in about 1870, began to give this 
phrase a large meaning. They have taken the words 
" liberty " and " property " in this provision and given 
them an elastic and enlarged meaning which nobody 

246 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

dreamed lurked anywhere in this provision. Why, when 
King Jolin signed Magna Charta at the demand of his 
Barons and undertook therein not to deprive any of his 
subjects of his " hberty " except by the law of the land, 
they all meant that he should not arrest them or imprison 
them or restrain them of their personal liberty except by 
due process of law. King John certainly did not think 
the word *' liberty " he was signing for meant liberty for 
a woman to work all night in a factory, or anything like 
that. In the same way when this safeguard was adopted 
in our fundamental instruments of government in this 
country, no one understood it to have such a meaning. 
Y^ou shall not deprive a man of his liberty and property 
except by due process of law. To deprive him of his lib- 
erty was understood to mean to arrest him and lock him 
up or restrain his physical liberty. And to take his prop- 
erty meant to actually take his property. And not in 
England or on the continent of Europe, or anywhere else 
in the world, has any other meaning been attached to these 
two words, except in this country, and here not until about 
1870. Some Judges who got tired of the ordinary rule 
of thumb in deciding cases began to see in this word " hb- 
erty " boundless meanings — liberty to make any kind of a 
contract, hberty to do what you like in your house, liberty 
to work as long as you like. And in the word " property " 
they began to see not merely physical property, but uses 
of property. And in the decisions thus made I respect- 
fully say the courts have often forgotten that no owner- 
ship of property gives any one a right to use liis property 
in any wav which is inconsistent with the riglits, safety or 
comfort of the community. That is a fundamental prin- 
ciple with regard to property. It used to be an old- 
fashioned thing for people to say of their property, and 
even the railroad companies used to say it in this country 
some years ago, " Well, do not we OAvn it and cannot we 
do as we like with our own? " I do not think a man with 
an automobile has a right to do what he likes with it. No 
more has a man with a piece of land, or any other prop- 

247 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

erty. He has got to use it consistently with the wel- 
fare of the whole community, and the whole community 
has a right to deprive him of the use of it to the extent of 
making him conform to that welfare. 

Now, I will take up some court decisions to illustrate 
to you how the courts, as I think, and as many think, have 
gone far afield in the interpretation of the words " liberty " 
and " property " in this constitutional safeguard. I am 
not saying to you anything new with me. I said this when 
I was a Judge. I put it in the form of an address some 
years ago, at a time when it made people look somewhat 
askance at a man to say as much. But, I tell you, people 
do not look so much askance nowadaj^s as they used to 
about a good many things. And I have had a very dis- 
tinguished recruit to my side within a year, who is saying 
something about this throughout the country. 

The first case I shall call your attention to is known 
in mv own state as the tenement house tobacco case. There 
are similar decisions in other states, but I shall cite from 
my own state mostly in order not to be offensive. I will 
start with the tenement house tobacco case. You know 
what a condensed population we have in a part of the City 
of New Y^ork. Well, benevolent men and women in going 
around there found in the little rooms in these crowded 
tenements certain things being manufactured that were 
not wholesome. They found tobacco being manufactured 
into its various products in the living rooms of these poor 
tenements. Benevolent people who help the poor saw it 
and thev saw the evils of it. Thev saw little children born 
into this world and brought up in bedrooms and kitchens 
in the fumes and odors of tobacco. They also saw longer 
hours of work than would be the case if workmen left their 
work at the shop and went home. So they went to the 
legislature and got a law passed forbidding the manu- 
facture of tobacco in the living rooms of these tenements. 
And the Governor signed it. Well, they thought they had 
accomplished something important. And a great many 
thought so, and a great many more to-day think so than 

248 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



thought so then. Eut it got into the courts and finally the 
highest court in my state, the Court of AjDpeals, decided 
the case. And it said that that statute was unconstitu- 
tional and void because it deprived the leaseholder, the 
tenant, of his " hberty " and his " property " within the 
meaning of this constitutional provision. It is one of the 
pioneer cases, and the Judge who wrote the opinion waxed 
eloquent over this thing. It could not be allowed, the 
depriving of a man in his tenement of the " liberty " to 
bring his children up in the fumes of tobacco. That lib- 
erty was too valuable to be taken away from him. I have 
had the case brought in from the library (taking up a 
copy of the New York State Reports*). The Judge said 
in these very words: " It arbitrarily deprives him of his 
property and of some portion of his personal liberty." 
Some " portion," mind you. I wonder he did not say 
" potion " in place of portion. The idea of dealing out 
liberty by portions may do for judicial English, but I do 
not advise you young law students to adopt it. If there 
is anybody on this earth that the earth has least use for it 
is the little rule of thumb lawyer, especially if he goes 
about with a green bag in his hand as I have seen them do 
in Boston. That kind of a little lawyer generally grows 
up and after a few years has a face of parclmient, and he 
does everything just by rule of thumb. My young friends 
in the Law School here, broaden out. Be lawyers and be 
judges, but not little rule of thumb lawyers and judges. 
I almost say to you be men first and lawj^ers second. Y^es, 
after an eloquent disquisition this Judge says this statute 
arbitrarily deprives this tenement leaseholder of his "prop- 
erty " and of some portion of his " liberty," within the 
meaning of this constitutional prohibition against depriv- 
ing anybody of his liberty or property without due process 
of law. The court said that it deprived him of liberty to 
use his tenement as he saw fit. The word " liberty " in 
this constitutional provision, the court said, meant liberty 



*Matter of Jacobs, 98 N. Y. Reports, 98. 

249 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

to manufacture tobacco in your tenement under your chil- 
dren's noses if you wanted to. The sum and substance 
of it is that the court said that this constitutional guaranty 
gave the tenant hberty to do that in his tenement, and 
therefore the legislature could not take it away from him. 
Well, if the premises were correct the conclusion would 
be correct. And then they said that it deprived him of 
his property within the meaning of the word " property " 
in this constitutional provision in this, that it deprived him 
of one use of his property, namely, the use to manufac- 
ture tobacco — as though he could not go elsewhere and 
get another room to manufacture tobacco in. But that 
was the reasoning. I suppose I ought not to poke fun 
over it, because it is a serious matter, but it is not always 
easy to be serious when you do not see the thing in the 
same light as other solemn people see it. And so down 
went this health statute in a heap, declared void because 
it deprived the tenement house lessee of the liberty to use 
his tenement for anything he saw fit, and deprived him of 
his property in as much as it deprived him of one use of 
his one-year leasehold, or whatever it was. That was the 
decision. It was all reasoned out very fine. But do the 
words " liberty " and " property " in the constitutional 
provision mean any such thing? Not in England up to 
this hour, where this constitutional phrase originated, has 
anybody ever dreamed of it meaning any such thing. No- 
where in the civilized world except in this country has 
anybody said it meant any such thing. Why, the Barons 
never dreamed at Runnymede that they were extorting 
from King John by Magna Charta liberty to manufac- 
ture tobacco in a tenement bedroom. 

The next case in order was the bake-oven case in my 
state. A bake-oven, you know, is underground. And if 
any of you ever were in a bake-oven I do not need to say 
another word about bake-ovens. It is the hottest and 
most uncomfortable place on the face of the earth. It is 
a hard place to work in. It is hot and unhealthy, and no 
one can stand it without injury to health. So in the same 

250 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SP EECHES 

way in the state of New York we had a law passed pre- 
scribing sanitary regulations for the bakeries. Much med- 
ical opinion was got together about it, and statistics were 
looked up to see how long bakers lived. And bread can be 
very easily made unsanitary by an unsanitary baker. The 
rheum of his eyes and the sweat of his body may not be 
very pleasant to have in your bread the next morning, 
though you know nothing about it. And disease may be 
disseminated in that way. These bake-ovens are excep- 
tional. They are underground and as hot as Tophet, if 
I may use such an expression here. It reminds me of the 
saying of General Phil. Sheridan, that if he owned both 
Texas and Tophet, he would lease out Texas and live in 
Tophet. Texas was a hard place in those days, and these 
bake-ovens are much harder. The law was passed pre- 
scribing regulations for them. One of the regulations was 
that 10 hours a night was all that a baker should work in 
these places. To do credit to our state courts, they said 
it was a reasonable law — that it was a fair health law — 
and they approved of it. But it got up to the Supreme 
Court of the United States in some way and that court, 
by a vote of 5 to 4, as is usual in important matters, de- 
cided that the act was unconstitutional and void because 
it deprived the journeyman bakers of the " liberty " 
of working all night in bake-ovens if they wanted to. That 
is exactly the decision. They said it took away their lib- 
erty. There were no journeymen bakers that I know of 
clamoring for any such liberty. Judge Peckham, who 
wrote the opinion on which the case was decided, said 
(reading from United States Reports*) : " The question 
involved is whether the statute is a fair, reasonable and 
appropriate exercise of the police power of the state, or 
is it an unreasonable, unnecessary and arbitrary inter- 
ference with the right of the individual to his personal lib- 
erty." That was exactly the language of the Judge. 
Judge Holmes, who wrote one of the dissenting opinions. 



*Lochner Case, 198 U. S. Reports, 45. 

251 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



said it looked to liim as though it was only an installment 
of what we might look for hereafter. And he intimated 
that the legislature had the right, if it saw fit, to prescribe 
10 hours a day for everybody, in office and out of office. 
Judge Peckham said for the court the question was 
whether it was a fair and reasonable exercise of legislative 
power. And he said, no, it was not. But who is the judge 
of that, pray? Who made him the judge of it, pray? 
Who made any court in this land the judge of that 
against your will? If you, by which I mean the in- 
telligent people of any state, conclude that it is a fair 
and reasonable thing to limit the hours of work in these 
bake-ovens to 10 hours in one night, if enlightened public 
sentiment comes to that conclusion, I want to know where 
any court in this land was given the power to set that 
enlightened public sentiment at naught and overthrow it. 
To say that this is a government of the people is trite, and 
I am sorry to say sometimes laughed at nowadays. They 
spell it in New York in some of the newspapers p-e-e-p-u-1 
in order to make ridicule of it. They think that when you 
say the people you mean every man who has a patch on 
his trousers and no visible means of support. I think you 
and I do not mean that w^hen we say the people. I say 
the people up here at Yale University and the enlightened 
people of the country. Everybody knows more than any- 
body. It was always so, and I think the enlightened 
opinion of the people on a question like that may be more 
safely followed than that of a few judges, and should be. 
_No>Yhere in the civilized world did any bench of judges 
ever arrogate to themselves the rfghtto decide over the 
Heads of the legislature and the community whether such 
a legislative act is fair jand reasonable until it was done 
In this country. Fair and reasonable? Don't we know 
whether it is fair and reasonable as a health measure for 
the benefit of society to prohibit tobacco from being manu- 
factured in tenement rooms with little children playing 
around and tasting and smelling it and learning how to 
use it, and having their health injured by it? And in the 

252 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

same way, do we know or do we not know whether it is 
fair and reasonable to prescribe 10 hours for night work 
in an underground bake-oven. Some of you go down into 
one to-night and see whether you woukl hke to stay there 
any longer than 10 hours, if you have any doubt about 
what I am telling you. That is one of the problems I 
have in New York now to keep the bakeries sanitary. 
Good bread depends upon it. Good bread depends upon 
the health of these men who cough and sweat there while 
they are at their work. 

Now, the police power, as it is called, gives the Legis- 
lature power to pass any law for (quoting from a volume) 
" the health, comfort, morals, safety or general welfare of 
society." That is the definition of the police power. And 
the courts profess to be all agreed that any statute passed 
for the health, comfort, morals, safety or general welfare 
is a good and valid statute notwithstanding this constitu- 
tional provision. But, say the courts, we, however, will 
keep the decision to ourselves of the question whether a 
given statute is fairly and reasonably for the " health, 
comfort, morals, safety or general welfare." It is not 
enough that the Legislature and those who elected it think 
so and say so. The legislature may debate it. They may 
collect statistics on it. Benevolent people may work upon 
it. The law may be passed unanimously by the Legisla- 
ture and signed by the Governor and meet the wishes of 
the whole state. But we, we, mind you, or I, if it happen 
to be one judge, reserve to ourselves, or to myself — big I 
and little you — the question whether it is such is reason- 
able and fair and necessary, or not. All I say is that we 
have given no such power to the courts. And in reserving 
that question to themselves how do they do it? Why, they 
do just what I am telling you. They go to this constitu- 
tional provision, which we borrowed from England and 
which is world wide, and they take these two words " lib- 
erty " and " property," and they say the statute deprives 
a man of his liberty or his property or both within their 
meaning as used in such provision — deprives him of his 

253 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

liberty to sweat all night in a bake-oven and of his liberty 
to manufacture tobacco under the noses of his httle chil- 
dren in tenement rooms, and that such statute is not for 
the health, morals, comfort, safety or general welfare. 
Now, I am speaking with all respect. I said all this years 
ago, and I was wondering whether it was altogether safe 
to say it up here among you people of steady habits in Con- 
necticut. But inasmuch as you students here come from 
all parts of the United States I thought I would venture 
to speak about it. Do not understand me as deriding the 
courts. Nobody has more respect for them than I have. 
We all respect them. But never let any one get it out of 
your mind that the judges are public officials just like 
mayors and governors, like myself and Governor Baldwin, 
and open to public criticism just as we are, neither more 
nor less. We cannot criticise them while they have a case 
before them. Ordinary decency requires that we remain 
mute — not like some newspapers which tell them how to 
decide it and do the whole thing for them. We have to 
keep still until they have made their decision. But as soon 
as they make it we have a right to discuss and criticise it 
if we want to, and pick it to pieces if we can. 

The next case in order in my own state is the factory 
women's act. Now what was that? The Legislature with 
unanimity passed a law and the Governor signed it that 
women should not be permitted to work in the factories of 
the state between the hours of 9 at night and 6 in the 
morning. Now do you understand what I am saying? 
You may think I am joking but I am not. It was not 
between 6 in the morning and 9 at night. We all thought 
it was enough to work from 6 in the morning until 9 at 
night for women in factories, so we passed a law that 
between 9 at night and 6 in the morning they should quit. 
Now, why did we do that? Why, we did it because they 
have done it all over Europe and in England and all over 
the civilized world, as they have with regard to other like 
cases, yy^ ^i^ it because we wanted our women healthy, 
and also jgood looking, if you will allow me. That counts 

y 254 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SP EECHES 

for a good deal in this world with a woman. But for a 
man the homelier he is the better so far as I know, espe- 
cially so far as getting along with the women is concerned. 
And the Governor signed the act. Nobody ever dreamed 
of the law having anything the matter with it. We wanted 
healthy children also, and you do not have healthy children 
unless you have healthy mothers. I have already read to 
you the police power law which permits any statute for 
the welfare of the community or the health of the com- 
munity or the morals of the community to be passed. Isn't 
it to the welfare and health of the community that women 
bear healthy children, which they cannot do unless they 
are healthy themselves? But it got into our Court of 
Appeals and they were indignant. I cannot express it 
any other way. Read the opinion of the court.* There 
is a tone of indignation in it. And what was it? Why, 
they said you are depriving the women of the liberty to 
work all night if they want to. Well, now, we had not 
heard any woman clamoring for that liberty in our state. 
But the Court of Appeals cited this constitutional pro- 
vision that you may not deprive any one of his liberty or 
her liberty without due process of law. And they said 
here is a statute, with no process of law, just in the stroke 
of a pen depriving her of the liberty to work all night if 
she sees fit. And down it went. This word liberty was 
stretched to mean that. Of course when you get going in 
this w^orld down hill the farther you go the faster you 
go until you fall prone. And sooner or later the courts 
have to fall prone with these cases. And that statute was 
destroyed. Now I do not want to say anything too strong, 
so I aknost have to appeal to President Hadley and Judge 
Baldwin here present if it is not a reasonable thing to say 
that a statute like that should meet with the assent of 
every man and woman. And so it did until it got into the 
Court of Appeals of the State of New York, and these 
venerable gentlemen thumbed the Constitution and found 



♦Williams Case, 189 N. Y. Reports, 131. 

255 



I 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

this clause, which they were very famihar with, that no 
woman should be deprived of her liberty without due 
process of law. And that is the fate the case met. Since 
then a case came up in the Supreme Court of the United 
States from Oregon, I think,* and the Supreme Court 
was confronted with this decision in our state. But finally 
they rejected it and held the statute from the West to 
be good. They interpreted this same constitutional pro- 
vision in the United States Constitution. Thus we have 
this same word " liberty " in the same context held to mean 
one thing by the one court and another thing by the other. 
They said that women were the wards of the nation and 
bore our children, and that such a statute was reasonable 
on its face. But they still asserted and kept to themselves 
this power of deciding whether it is reasonable or not, 
which I say is your right and not theirs. We all know 
whether it is right or not without submitting it to a bench 
of judges, men for ^''ears withdrawn from affairs of life, 
men who have not l^epit note of tlie economic and social 
progress of the world, men who, maj^be, are years behind 
their times. Mostjnen do not adxanc£jalle.i„JU^ What 
they know up to that date they think is just right and they 
will stick to it. But the forerunners of human thought 
are afoot all the time, and thej'' lead the way in this world. 
The world is advancing all the time, not going backward. 
And these statutes come along as the mere expressions of 
economic advancement and social advancement, and to 
have them meet such a fate on the theory that they con- 
flict with this constitutional provision, passed only to safe- 
guard the individual in his liberty and property, is dis- 
tressing. 

Now, we also passed several statutes in our state with 
regard to work done for the state or any municipality by 
contractors, that the rate of wages paid should be the pre- 
vailing rate, as it is expressed, and that 10 hours should 
be a day's work. That was done because the contractors 



*Muller Case, 208 U. S. Reports, 412. 

256 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

on large works very often move into a comnumitv with an 
army of men that they had on some work maybe a tliousand 
miles off, where labor was cheap. That law was passed not 
to have the community dislocated by such things as that, 
but to have the local prevailing rate of wages paid. But 
our Court of Appeals struck these laws down one after 
the other as depriving a man of his liberty to work for 
any wages he saw fit — for 90 cents, say, when the prevail- 
ing rate was $1.50. But as I will show you later those 
decisions all went by the board. 

Another decision I wish to call your attention to was 
made a year ago last winter, by our Court of Appeals, the 
highest in the state.* It was on the Employers' Liability 
act. Now, let me say preliminary that 32 different gov- 
ernments of the world have an Employers' Liability act, 
coupled with insurance, often. Every civilized country in 
the world has it outside of this countr5^ Prussia had one 
as early as 1847. Russia has a model one, and we some- 
times say Russia is uncivilized. Lloyd George, three years 
ago, modeled the English act after the Russian one. And 
what a great statesman they said Lloyd George was. But 
he simply took the Russian act and copied it. They had 
one in England already, but it was rather old and out of 
date. But all over Europe, all over the British Colonies, 
all over the world, in 32 different governments or more, 
such a law exists. The old common law rule, as we call it, 
is that the workman takes all the inherent risks of the 
business. Well, when people had nothing but hoes and 
shovels and hand-looms and the like to work with there 
was not much risk to take. But now with our complicated 
machinery and our explosives, the worlmian takes a great 
deal of risk. The judges very often say in a bungling way 
that the workman "assumes" the inherent risk of the 
work and the place where he works. He does not assume 
it at all. He is not given a chance to say a word about 
it. The law casts it upon him, the common law rule which 



*Ives Case, 201 N. Y. Reports, 271. 

257 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

we took from England but which England discarded years 
ago. He has also no redress if injured by the negligence 
of a fellow worker. He is told to sue his fellow worker. 
What a consolation that is. Well, now, in England that 
has all been done away with. It is done away with all 
over Europe, everywhere except here. We have stuck to 
it in my state as though we worshipped it. But in this 
statute passed three years ago in my state it was enacted 
that the common law rules that the workman took all the 
inherent risks of the business, machinery, blasting and 
everything, and of the negligence of his fellow workers, 
was abrogated. And then the statute enacted that unless 
lie was hurt by his own wilful negligence he should be 
paid by the employer. All the enlightened employers in 
my state wanted the law. All the workmen wanted the 
law, and all people who have kept pace with the economic 
progress of the world wanted the law. And it was passed. 
The employers had reason to want the law. Now there 
are certain insurance companies that insure them against 
accidents to their workmen. One employer pays $1,500 
a year to the company to insure him against all these acci- 
dents, and another $10,000, and so on, according to the 
size of their business. A few years ago I was talking to 
an educated man on that subject, and I said there ought 
to be a fund made up by government by taxation of manu- 
facturers to pay those people who lose their legs and arms 
and the dependents of those who lose their lives by dan- 
gerous machinery. And he said I was " talking socialism." 
I said to him that some people are much frightened about 
socialism but that socialism like that did not frighten me 
an3^ It seems to me that if everybody was put on the 
level of socialism, and everybody was paid a wage by the 
state, everybody would be doing as little as he could. The 
total product would grow less all the time and there would 
be more poverty than the world ever saw. That is the way 
I look at socialism, and yet I may be wrong. " But," he 
says, " you are talking socialism." I asked him if he was 
not insured against accidents to his workmen. He said 

258 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPE ECHES 

he was, and paid $1,500 a year. I told him that the in- 
surance company employed an army of lawyers, an army 
of investigators, an army of process servers, and in that 
way ate up the fund made up by the premiums paid in, 
leaving enough however to pay a fair diA'idend to the stock- 
holders. And that if the state taxed all employers to pay 
for these accidents without any law suit at all they might 
be paying less of a tax than they are now paying to the 
insurance companies for it. " Well, I never thought of 
that," he said. I said, "That is sociahsm, is it? You 
ought to begin to think about it." So, as I said, in my 
state we were willing to have this law and it was passed 
and the Governor signed it. There was no party question 
about it. The legislature was practically unanimous. But 
the statute was challenged in the courts, and this old friend 
of ours, the constitutional guaranty that your property 
shall not be taken without due process of law, was brought 
up again, and the courts said that to make the employers 
in the factories ]^aj for these injuries of workmen was to 
take that much money from them without due process of 
law and therefore was taking their property without due 
process of law, and therefore Adolative of this constitutional 
guaranty. And the statute was declared void. Well, now, 
let us see. Does it take any one's property at all? A 
manufacturer has to pay for the machinery and when it 
is broken he has to repair it. And all that goes into the 
cost of his product. And if he has to pay people who 
have their hands crushed and who are otherwise hurt, will 
not that enter into the cost of his product also? Doesn't 
he simply add that, a mere decimal too small to be noticed, 
to the selling price of his article? And therefore it is you 
and I and the whole community in buying that article who 
pay this fund that goes to pay these people, and not the 
manufacturer at all. That is an economic proposition, 
and I see no answer to it. Nor do I see any reason why 
we should not make the expense of such injuries a part of 
the cost of manufacture, the same as the cost and repair of 
the machinery. Do you see any reason why one should 

259 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

not be on a par with the other? They have done it all 
over the world, and why should we not do it here? Why 
also should we not go further if necessary as they do, and 
impose a tax on the manufacturers to create a fund to be 
put in trust in the hands of the state to pay these ex- 
penses? We simply add one other cost to manufacture. 
I referred a moment ago to the Prussian law of 1847. It 
was a tax on wages to create such a fund, and it was such 
a decimal that the manufacturer, sooner than be bothered 
with the bookkeeping of it, as a rule paid it himself, and 
the law soon after was amended to cast it on the manu- 
facturer. The tax is not so large. People look at these 
things too seriously. When you come to spread a tax 
over all the manufacturers of the state you know a small 
tax will raise a large sum and will pay all these maimed 
and injured people and go into the cost of the manu- 
factured product and all who buy manufactured articles 
pay the money that goes to pay for these injuries, and 
hardly feel it. We have got to pay for them in some 
way, either in the poor-house or in some more respectable 
way, and I think we had better choose the respectable 
way. But this Employers' Liability act in my state we 
cannot have. I read this morning that the United States 
Senate had passed a national one, and I was sorry to see 
that even 15 Senators voted against it. 

Now what is the remedy for these things? I have 
kept my remarks to my own state and the Supreme 
Court of the United States. My state has been a woeful 
offender, and other states quite as bad. What are you 
going to do? You cannot put tobacco out of j^our tene- 
ments. You cannot prescribe hours of work at night in 
the bake-ovens. You cannot forbid people to employ 
women between nine at night and six in the morning in 
factories. You cannot have an insurance law or an Em- 
ployers' Liability law to pay people who are injured at 
work. What are you going to do? I referred a moment 
ago to the decisions of our Court of Appeals declaring 
those acts void which said the prevailing rate of wages 

260 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

should be paid on state and municipal work by contractors, 
and that 10 hours a day should constitute a day's work. 
How did we get rid of those decisions, do you suppose? 
In 1905 we passed a constitutional amendment nullifying 
them, or to use a word now grown familiar and quite ex- 
pressive, we " recalled " them all.* Some people are 
talking about recalling decisions as though they had dis- 
covered something new. Why, we have been doing it 
from the foundation of our government. When the 
courts decide things in the way we do not want, the legis- 
lature passes an act making it as the people want it over 
the heads of the courts. But where it is a constitutional 
question the legislature cannot do it. We have to do it 
by constitutional amendment. Some are clamoring 
against submitting these questions to the vote of the peo- 
ple — some say populace, so little respect have they for 
the people. We talk about the intelligent people that 
come out of Yale and our colleges and our splendid sys- 
tem of schools — that is what w^e mean when we talk about 
the intelligence of the people, and I tell you the intelli- 
gence of the people governs in the end. And the intelli- 
gent people control those who are not intelligent. I once 
made the statement before an audience that there was at 
least one highly intelligent man in each block in the City 
of New York, and that in the end, as he thought, that 
block would think. His mind[,jvould come pretty near 
ruHng that block. And a marl said to me, " Never say 
that again. If you ever want to run for office you will 
only have that one man in the block to vote for you." 
And I said to him, " My dear sir, I can say that with ini- 
punity because every man in the audience will think he is 
that one man in the block." That is what we did with 
these five decisions. Now the legislature of my state this 
year, before adjourning, passed a joint resolution to sub- 
mit to a vote of the people the question whether ^ve should 
not overrule this Employers' Liability decision, too. It is 



*N. Y. State Constitution, Art. 12, Sec. 1. 

261 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

nothing new at all, this recalling of decisions. Those 
that think it is new are only discovering an old thing 
which they think is new. Some people are clamoring 
against submitting it to the vote of the people. Why the 
constitutions of our states are adopted by the people, are 
they not? And the j)eople can alter them by their vote, 
can they not? I see no difference between adopting the con- 
stitution by a vote of the people and the people amending 
it when they see fit, and as they see fit, by their vote. That 
is the way we do it in fact throughout all our states. But 
it is not done that way under the federal constitution, but 
will be, I assume, some time. Our legislature passed this 
year a joint resolution to submit that decision to a vote of 
the people, and our system is that two succeeding legis- 
latures have to pass the resolution and then the following 
fall the people vote on it at the election. So that you see 
in eighteen months we can bring about a constitutional 
amendment in my state. And that is the way generally 
throughout the states of the nation. And a year from 
this fall we will submit to the people of my state the 
question whether we will recall this decision striking down 
the Employers' Liability act. And you people in Con- 
necticut will see us recall it. We intend to go along a 
little. 

The national constitution is not so easily changed. We 
have been six years now at work in the process of chang- 
ing it so as to overrule the income tax decisions, and it 
looks as though we would be six years more at it. There 
is no provision in the federal constitution for calling con- 
stitutional conventions. In my state and in many, if not 
most states, there is a provision in the constitution that 
there must be a constitutional convention every twelve 
!*' years. We have to have it whether we want it or not, 
and that gives the people from all over the state a chance 
to come up and suggest constitutional amendments. Lin- 
coln said that a constitution should not outlast a genera- 
tion. He did not mean by that that a constitution should 
go by the board as a whole at the end of every generation. 

262 



MAYOR GAYNQR^S LETTERS AND SPEECH KS 

He only meant that at the end of a generation it wcjuld 
need changes. There is no use talking of these constitu- 
tions being sacred. Why, they are sacred in a certain 
sense, but they are not sacred enough to stop the progress 
of humanity and of the world. They are not sacred 
enough to stop social and economic progress by any 
means, and every generation that comes along is con- 
fronted by new conditions — that is what Lincoln meant 
when he said that a constitution should not outlast a gene- 
ration. The English constitution, which the judges some- 
times say is unwritten, has always been changing. I do 
not see how it is unwritten, however. I would like to 
know what part of it is unwritten. The habeas corpus 
act, the bill of rights, the petition of right, the act of set- 
tlement, and so on — all of it that I know anything about 
is written. But it has always been changing, gradually, 
very gradually, from generation to generation. Macaulay 
has this fine expression with regard to it: " Although it 
has been constantly changing there never was an instant 
of time in which the major portion of it was not old." 
That expresses how we must deal with constitutions. The 
changes must be gradual, mature and careful. So that 
we may be able to say of our constitution as Macaulay 
said of the British constitution, " constantly changing, but 
there never was an instant of time in which the major part 
of it was not old." So I would advocate putting in the 
national constitution an amendment that we have a con- 
stitutional convention by congressional districts every fif- 
teen or twenty years, and give the people of this country a 
chance to ask for changes. When the courts decide things to 
be miconstitutional we are helpless imless we can get to- 
gether and change our constitution bv vote, and that ought 
to be brought around as easily as possible. Xot as easily 
as possible in the rash sense, but as easily as possible with 
mature thought, with care, and with a reasonable lapse of 
time before voting— time for full discussion and thought. 
Now, I have probably said enough to lodge in your 
minds what I wanted to communicate to you on this sub- 

263 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

ject. I have omitted much, but 1 hope 1 have said enough 
to start you men here, especially in the law school, to 
thinking about these things. Don't go out of college as 
mere iconoclasts wanting to break everything, like some 
calling themselves radicals, who go around pulling up 
everything by the roots before they have something else 
to plant in its place. I do not want you to be that kind 
of men, but careful men, and mature men, and broad men. 
Do not go into the honorable profession of the law in a 
narrow spirit. Do not sit down and worship a decision 
simply because judges made it. An unjust decision can- 
not last in the nature of things. Courts sometimes think 
when they make a decision they have settled a thing for- 
ever. It is not so. If you had lived in the time of the 
Dred Scott decision would you have sat down and wor- 
shipped it? The Dred Scott decision which took a negro 
boy and remanded him back into human slavery in the 
state from which he came only hastened the coming libera- 
tion of the slave. It was open to discussion and to criti- 
cism like all official acts. And so you young men com- 
ing out of here to the bar, do not be the little rule of 
thumb lawyer that I spoke about at the beginning, but 
let your minds grow and expand. And look at the law 
as a growth, a growth to keep pace with economic growth 
and social growth, and then you shall have social justice 
and economic justice, or, to use a phrase that I like bet- 
ter, you will have, for you will bring it about in your gene- 
ration, distributive justice to all. 

Distributive Justice 

(Remarks at the Dinner of the Trust Company Section of 
the American Bankers' Association, Waldorf-Astoria Hotel, May 
9, 1912.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen : My part according to 
the programme is to welcome you in behalf of the City of 
New York. If you are satisfied with that much I will be 
perfectly willing to sit down. I most heartily welcome 

264 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



you. You are here from 36 states of the nation, as I 
understand it. Thirty-six — why not from all? And I 
welcome you all. I feel in perfectly good company; 1 
may as well say that too. I am right here with what some 
of our statesmen call the octopus. Or if I may use the 
plm'al, in its homeliest way, about 700 octopuses, I under- 
stand, are in this room. Altogether you make one great 
big octopus. Well, I am not a bit afraid of you, and I 
feel entirely comfortable, because we have a good many 
of the same kind, as Mr. Morgan knows, right here in the 
city of New York. I confess that I have found you just 
about like the rest of mankind. Y^ou have a bad name in 
some quarters, but I have found that your heart and your 
head are about the same as the rest of us. I do not want 
to say anything bad of you, to tell the truth — I might 
want to borrow a thousand dollars tomorrow, so I will be 
careful. If you are to be hung, drawn and quartered here 
in the city of New Y^'ork, I think I will turn that part of 
the job over to Judge Baldwin of Connecticut, at my right 
here. Perhaps he has some blue law up in Comiecticut that 
he has brought along in his vest pocket that will very fairly 
dispose of you. 

But if your reputation is somewhat shady in some quar- 
ters, I have to remind you that it is nothing new. That is 
something of very long standing. I hate to quote any 
classical author when these gentlemen of the press are 
around, because it astonishes the whole journalistic world. 
In the most harmless way I once quoted one sentence from 
Epictetus, and I never heard the last of it up to this time. 
First they seemed to think I quoted from some bad book. 
But by degrees they learned that I simply quoted from a 
harmless philosopher who had been or was a slave when 
he dictated his philosophy. 

Your reputation was bad even before the time of the 
elder Cato. ( To the reporters : Cato, Cato, I said. Did 
you ever hear of him before?) And I will let you know 
what he said about you, or what he says that other people 
said about you. It is in De Re Rustica— you college grad- 

265 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

uates have all read that in the original, his treatise on farm- 
ing. It is a sort of a Horace Greeley book, " What I know 
about Farming," by the elder Cato. And he was telling 
how honorable it was to make money out of farming. And 
then he said it is also at times worth while to gain wealth 
by commerce, were it not so perilous, or by usury were it 
equally honorable. And usury in those days meant any 
kind of interest. It was not a hard word as it is now. And 
then he says " our ancestors, however, held and fixed by 
law that a thief should be condemned to restore double, 
but a usurer quadruple." And then he continues, " We 
thus see how much worse they thought it for a citizen to be 
a money lender than a thief." Now none of the modern 
statesmen have said anything as bad as that about you have 
they, from Oregon to Connecticut? I have not heard of 
anybody saying anything quite so bad. They call you an 
octopus, and they laugh the next day when they want to 
borrow a thousand dollars and say they did not mean it 
at all. And you laugh also and lend them the money, 
sometimes to get rid of them, and without security. You 
are glad to do it. But you have your useful place in the 
world like everybody else. Society is very complex. If 
we were all bankers I don't know what would become of us. 
And if we had no bankers I don't know what would be- 
come of us or of you either. You have your useful place 
in the world, and your honorable place, I don't look upon 
you with any alarm whatever. On the contrary I look 
upon you as performing not only useful but an absolutely 
necessary office in every civihzed community in the world. 
Of course we don't want too many of you. The monied 
interests are always dreaded. Those who charge interest 
for money are always hated. But it is nothing new. I 
wish some of you would read the history of the House of 
Fuger beginning in the fifteenth century in Germany. 
You will find it in the recent volumes, " The Foundations 
of the Nineteenth Century." Some chap came there into 
Dusseldorf, a weaver, and he saved his wages, and he be- 
gan to loan it around here and there, and finally he became 

266 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTP^.RS AND SPPnailKS 

a banker. And during all the rest of that century, and 
all the sixteenth century, for that matter, the house of 
Fuger financed pretty much everything that there was in 
Germany, even the operations of the church in the collec- 
tion of the indulgence money, as you read in history. They 
lieard as much about them as we hear about the house of 
Morgan, if I may take that name in vain again (turning 
toward J. Pierpont Morgan). But they lived there in 
their day and their time, and passed away. They had their 
enemies, and they had their friends, and I suppose on the 
whole probably they served a useful purpose. At all 
events they tried to. And that is what you are trpng to 
do. 

I asked the distinguished gentlemen on my right and 
on my left what the laws of usury were generally through- 
out the countr5^ I understand, in fact I know, that in 
most of New^ England they have had the good sense to do 
away with the usury law. Scathed and blasted by the logic 
and reasoning of Bentham and Mill, and such minds, the 
usury laws disappeared from England and from the con- 
tinent of Europe so far as I know, but w^e still harbor them 
to a large extent in this country. My own state here has 
the most illogical, nonsensical and, I might say, wretched 
usury law on the face of the earth. We pass a statute pre- 
scribing a rate for money and then we make penalties for 
anybody w^ho agrees to take a higher rate. And one of the 
penalties is that the whole loan is forfeited. Well, that is 
done to protect the borrower they say. Did you ever hear 
such nonsense in your life? To protect the borrower. 
Why, if the borrower has no credit he cannot borrow, and 
if his credit is poor he has got to pay the rate for such 
credit. And inasmuch as the whole loan may be forfeited 
if he chooses to go into court and resist payment, why he 
has to be charged an additional sum in the rate for that 
risk, hasn't he? That is as plain as your five fingers. And 
yet when some attempts in this state have been made to 
repeal that nonsensical law you would think that the pdlars 
of the temple were about to be pulled down. They say 

267 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

it is to protect the poor. Oh, dear me ! Protect the poor ! 
It only adds to the rate the j)oor have to pay for money, 
the risk that I am telhng you. Every risk in the loan 
has to be considered in fixing the interest which has to be 
paid. Now many of our states have done away with that, 
following England and Europe. The borrower they say 
is the servant of the lender. Yes, to some extent that is 
true. Then they reason that the borrower and the lender 
are not on equal terms, and therefore thej'^ will enact a law 
that the lender shall only charge 6 per cent, because he is 
dominant over the borrower. But you are not obliged to 
lend it at all, and if you are taking a big risk you charge 
for it in some way or another. Somebody at my right or 
my left told me there is such a thing as getting a commis- 
sion on the outside; so that what they call the poor man, 
that they do love to protect so much, and in their bung- 
ling do not protect at all, very often has to pay a very much 
higher rate than he would have to pay if there were no 
usury law. The law says in this state, for instance, 6 per 
cent. But dear me, half the time money is being loaned 
for 3 per cent, and 4 per cent. Bonds and mortgages are 
placed here now at 4 per cent, and 4^/^ per cent. — why not 
6 per cent.? Why, because money is not worth 6 per 
cent, and you cannot get any more than 4% per cent, for 
it. That is the economic law. You might as well pass a 
law to change the seasons. As Macaulay says: " In spite 
of the Legislature the snow will fall when the sun is in 
Capricorn, and the flowers will bloom when he is in 
Cancer." So that all these laws are futile. Absolutely 
futile. But the trouble is the danger of saying so. I have 
the unfortunate habit of saying anything I like. So to- 
morrow, no doubt, somebody will say that I want to abol- 
ish the usury laws for the benefit of the bankers. Not one 
bit of it. It would not benefit you a particle. It would 
reduce the rate of interest, and you know it, every one of 
you who has thought of it — especially any of you who have 
read the literature on the subject. They know it in Massa- 
chusetts, and they know it in the western states, and in 

268 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS A ND SPEECHES 

some of the southern states. But I am sorry to say, here 
in my own state with a plain economic thing hke that, we 
have an economic falsehood on the statute hooks for gen- 
erations, and no legislature to change it. But I suppose 
it will come along. Everything happens, you know, if you 
live long enough. You don't know what may happen to 
you. This sort of law serves its time and then passes away. 

The great struggle and the effort of everyhody is really 
to do the best for all. The great effort of society, as lonff 
as we have known anything about organized society, has 
been to bring about what I may define in two words, dis- 
tributive justice. That is to say, justice to all, according 
to their merits and according to their productive capacity. 
And that is the great object of government, and the gi-eat 
aim of every honest man, whether he be a banker or not. 
Do not be mere little bankers, thinking about your 
own little clique, and j^our own little selves. If you 
do you will be like little parchment lawyers that we 
see going around with their little nile of thumb way of 
doing things and knowing nothing else on earth. 
Broaden out, j^ou intelligent men, and help to bring 
about distributive justice to all — to those above on 
the ladder and those below on the ladder, all the way 
down. And don't be so mean and pitiable that you cannot 
put 3^our eye first at the very foot of the ladder. I could 
make a wager that four-fifths of you started at the foot of 
the ladder yourselves. So look down at those at the foot, 
and remember that they are entitled to distributive justice 
too. We read the statistics of your banks, how much your 
deposits are, and how much your loans are, and we read 
the statistics showing the total product of the industry of 
the country. The figures are enormous. And then we all 
say: *' What a prosperous country. The total product 
of industry last year was so many billions, beating every 
nation on "the earth," and then we boast and say: "How 
prosperous !" 

My friends, remember distributive justice when you 
have that in your minds. Prosperity does not depend 

269 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

wholly on the total product of a country. It depends even 
more on a just distribution of that product among all who 
contributed by their work to produce it, whether that work 
was mental or physical or both. You may have the 
mightiest production, but until you have a just distribu- 
tion among all who contributed to it, you will not have 
distributive justice and you will not have prosperity, a con- 
tented society. So look to it that your own calling does 
not dwarf your minds. An animal lives in a little circle, 
as I know every time I look at my dog, or my horse or my 
cow or my pig, or even my goose, and within that horizon 
that animal knows more than we do. And you may know 
all within your circle. But broaden out. Do not let your 
little circle be to you the horizon of humanity or of man- 
kind. If you do, you are not fulfilling your office in the 
world. You intelligent men, with great power in your 
hands, prosperity is the highest production that a com- 
munity is capable of consistent vdth the moral, mental and 
physical health of the members of that community, accom- 
panied by a just division of the total product among those 
who produced it. I do not say share and share alike. No, 
but according to the productive capacity of each. Emula- 
tion and ambition are the mother of all good things in 
the world. What would the world be without them? So 
that the rewards of industry go to each and all according 
to the various productive capacities. And the loafers and 
criminals who produce nothing. Judge Baldwin, I suppose 
5^ou and I, all of us, have to support them and bear with 
them the best we can. That seems to be the order of the 
world. So I will simply urge you to take that broad view 
of things. 

I started out by facetiously saying that maybe you 
have a bad name in the community. I want to say some- 
thing on the other side of it. Wherever you go through- 
out this country, especially outside of the large cities, 
where people know each other, in the small villages and 
cities, the banker is always recognized as an honest man 
and a useful citizen in the community. And he does much 

270 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

good in the community. And if you have a had name and 
the monied interests are complained of, it is hecause there 
is some instinctive feehng that here and there, by means 
of money, there is too much power in the hands of a few 
people. That you want to counteract. Y^ou want to coun- 
teract it by 3^our justice, and by your humanity. Not by 
dohng out charity, but by doing justice, by working all 
the time as intelligent citizens, after the manner of states- 
men who promote that distributive justice which satisfies 
everybody and makes all people brethren. 

Of course, there is a notion in the world, and it seems 
to be growing, that the state had better take all the bank- 
ing unto itself, all the railroads unto itself, all the lands 
unto itself, all the implements and means of production, 
and all the factories, and everything, unto itself, and run 
them all. That is Socialism. I am aware that about 99 out 
of 100 think the Socialistic propaganda is to cut all the 
property up into little bits and give each one an equal bit. 
Just think of cutting all the land here on Manhattan Is- 
land, or in the city of New York, up into 5,000,000 bits and 
giving each one a bit. What would you do with your bit? 
Build a skyscraper on it? But they have no such thing in 
their minds at all. That is absurd. You all laugh at it. 
That is not their propaganda. Their propaganda is to 
mass everything under the control of the state. In place of 
dividing property up into little bits, they mass it all in one 
lump under one control, namely, of the state, and then let 
the state pay everybody. I think under that system each 
one of us would do just as httle as he could, wouldn't he? 
All ambition and emulation would be gone. The mother 
of excellence in the world is competition. It would be 
gone. The state would be the only landlord, the only em- 
ployer. Competition would be gone, and everyone doing 
as little as he could because he would only be paid a little 
anyhow. The result would be that the total product would 
be 'small, and grow smaller and smaller. The result would 
be more poverty under that regime than the world ever 
saw before. And it would not last one generation— that 

271 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

is my opinion, publicly expressed for your benefit, and 
anyone else that may care to listen. But in the other 
way of competition we do not want to drive it to the extent 
of putting our hobnails into the flesh of our brethren and 
those who are struggling aromid us, whether in the polit- 
ical field or in the bankers' field, or in the workmen's field. 
We want to know there is one great God over us all. 
Knowing that solemnlj^ and sincerely we should use it in 
the practical affairs of life, and try to do justice to all. 
And that is distributive justice. Now, you bankers, from 
all parts, go home and try to do that. 



The Lessons of Farming 

(Extract from Speech at the Syracuse Fair, September 12, 1911.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the State of New 
York: What particularly interested me in looking over 
your exhibit so far as I have gone is the growth of the 
State in its farming interests since I was a boy on the 
farm, which I may without any vanity mention since so 
many others have taken the liberty of lugging it in by the 
heels. I happen also to have been born and brought up 
on a farm, and have a vivid recollection of farming con- 
ditions in those days. We had an awful hard time to 
live. The best of what grew on the farm was not eaten 
at all. We scarcely ate butter, and never drank any 
milk, except skimmed milk. We seldom ate flesh meat, 
except pork, and seldom eggs, strange as it may sound to 
the prosperous farmers of to-day. Those were the things 
which brought in the only ready money which we had, and 
we saved our butter and such things until the agent came 
around to buy them and turn them into ready cash to pay 
the bills of the year. The rest of the year we just lived the 
best we could on the skimmed milk and what was left, and 
then in the winter — I won't exactly undertake to tell you 
how we lived. We lived somehow or another, or I would 
not be here and when we came out of it all with pretty 

272 



M 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

good constitutions, and we came out of it also with some 
preparation for life. The great quality of perseverance 
is learned on the farm as nowhere else. The city people 
rush about mad to make a dollar, and jump on a car and 
spend five cents and go back and forth with no time to 
spare, and do just their formal tasks as they have to do 
them from day to day. There is no education in it. 
There is nothing ennobling about it. There is no time 
left to them to think or to invent or to do any great thing, 
so that the cities, according to their population, do not 
produce the number of considerable or great men they 
should produce. But out in the country the lessons are 
entirely different. You learn the lessons of hardship. 
You learn that you have to work, wet or dry, and in the 
hot sun, and stick it out too in the hot sun or in the rain; 
or go into the woods in the winter and log it and cut and 
skid your logs and haul them out, and hew out the snow- 
banks in order to get in and out half the time. And when 
you look at a great big cornfield, with all its rows of corn, 
a great field, just think of going to work to cultivate and 
hoe that corn. It is bad enough to think of a little garden 
where you have to get down on your hands and knees to 
weed. That is tedious enough. But the big cornfield or 
the big potato field, why the city chap without any educa- 
tion or perseverance — by the time he had done half of one 
of these long rows would begin to count how many there 
were left, and quit. He would say " This is an endless 
job." But the country boy has to stick it out, row after 
row and day after day. So that in after life a big task 
put before him does not look so big, because he has been 
taught the experience that if he goes to work at it silently 
and systematically, that sooner or later, and soon enough 
at that, it will all be done. Now, is not that what we 
learn in the country above all other things ; so that when 
we come down to the city and go in among the " smart " 
people — I mean the people w^ho think they are so much 
smarter than we are— we are not at all feazed, we are a 
little awkward no doubt, w^e do not dress quite the same, 

273 



r 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

but we after all liave some habits that equip us to come 
into the competition with them and do fairly well. How 
is that? 

On Opening a Jewish Theatre 

(Address at the Opening of Kessler's Second Avenue Theatre, 

September 14., 1911.) 

This theatre really is astonishing. There are a cer- 
tain number of people in this great city who think the East 
Side is a sort of slum. Oh, how much they do sympathize 
with you. And how much a year some of them are being 
paid for sympathizing with you. I wish they were all 
here to-night to listen to this play. The name of the play 
is " God, Man and Devil." I cannot say it in Yiddish, 
but that is the way it is in English. Now, that is a pretty 
comprehensive play. It takes in the heavens above and 
the earth beneath and all the fire and water under the 
earth. Nothing is left out. I think after being Mayor 
for a year and a half that I could almost write a play on 
that subject myself. The great trouble, though, very 
often, is to distinguish the man from the devil. They 
look a good deal alike sometimes and act a good deal alike, 
too, and maybe this play will develop that trait as you wit- 
ness it. However, I trust and am assured that it is a 
good play of high dramatic art. I do not know why it 
should not be. You people are of a dramatic race. Your 
whole history is drama and tragedy, from the twilight of 
fable, from the days of Abraham, down to this hour. 
Where else outside of your scriptures, the Old Testament 
in our bible, is there so much of exalted poetry, of ex- 
alted tragedy? All the literatures of the world in these 
respects and in others nowhere approach the books of what 
we call the Old Testament. And every one written by 
one of your race — one of the Jewish race. That is no 
flattery to tell you that, because the whole world knows it. 
And I might go much further and say that what we call 
the New Testament — the second part of our bible — that 

274 






MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

every chapter and every line of it also was written by a 
Jew. So that the Christian bible— the bible that we all 
read — Old Testament and New Testament, was all oi" it 
written by Jews. And when a Christian picks up his 
bible to read it, and has that fact in his mind, how on 
earth is he going to have any ill will towards the Jew? 
And yet, after taking all of your scriptures and all of the 
New Testament, written by Jews, I am sorry to say that 
in some way or another they did tm-n around and show ill 
will towards you, which, however is happily dying out all 
over the world, and 1 shall not make further mention of it. 
May be some of it does survive yet, but God knows I 
don't know how it does survive or how it ever existed at 
all. It certainly will not survive much longer, even in 
Russia. 

So you people are worthy of this theatre. This 
theatre never would have been built (with all respect to 
the architect and to the builder), except that you wanted 
it and that your genius was here waiting for it. Is not 
that so? And so they came along and built it for you, 
and somebody put up the money for it, and I suppose 
he is going to make his dividends out of it hereafter 
through 3''our genius for the drama and through the in- 
stinct that you have for good plays and good music. 

The programme said that Mr. Johnson, the builder, 
was going to give me the key of the building. I guess it 
is out in the door there somewhere. Where is it, Johnson? 
The next speaker is Mr. Kessler, so if I had the key, ISIr. 
Kessler, as the programme says, I would give it to you 
and I would also say to you, " Sir, while you are the lessee 
of this theatre, you go and lock that outer door up tight 
with that key sooner than let anything foul or indecent in 
the way of plays enter this theatre. Hold the drama up. 
Honor the people that come here to take an interest in 
the drama." I am sorry to say it, Irut there are some peo- 
ple in the city of New' York now of base mind, dealing 
with the drama, that only want to pull it down in the 
mud, and I hope this will never occur within the walls of 

275 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



this theatre. It never will so long as the people of the 
East Side remain what they are now — pure of mind, aspir- 
ing to advance in the world, pure of heart and with an 
artistic temperament. I tell you that since the beginning 
of the world art and filth never went hand in hand, never. 
And they never will. Look at the masterpieces of comedy 
and tragedy. Look at the pieces played by Bonne, and 
Von Sonnenthal, and Rachael, and Bernhardt. Why, 
those were great actors and actresses because they played 
legitimate plays — plays filled with morality and genius, 
which did not degrade the community, but while they ele- 
vated us mortals up almost, as the saying is, to the skies, 
brought angels down, and purified the minds of every- 
body. That that is the future of this theatre is the hope 
which I now express in declaring it open and delivering it 
over to 3^ou, Mr. Kessler. 



Farmers' Prices 

(Address to Farmers from Pennsylvania at Cit}'^ Hall, August 

31, 1911.) 

I am very glad indeed to receive you, farmers from 
Pennsylvania, all of you, as I understand. Most people 
in this city think that they are paying you altogether too 
much for what j^ou produce and send down here. I hap- 
pen to have been born and reared on a farm, so I think I 
may say that I am of a different opinion. I know we 
had a pretty hard time when I was at it, to make both 
ends meet, and I guess it is pretty much the same all over 
the United States yet, although we hear some people 
here in the city talking about the farmers rolling in wealth 
with their high prices. The figures read here this morn- 
ing show that although we do pay unconscionably high 
prices here these prices do not go to you. Apparently 
only about one-third of it ever reaches you. The rest 
goes to the carrier and the middleman, and so on. The 
people in the cities also do not remember that if you are 

276 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



receiving higher prices for your farm products than you 
formerly did you are, on the other hand, paying much 
higher prices for everytliing which you have to buy. So 
that the case with you is about the same as it used to be. 
It is just about the same old story — to work hard sunny 
day and rainy day all the year round, and live. That is 
about what it amomits to in the country the same as in the 
city. Now, these high prices are general. You only 
need to go to London or Paris to find the prices there 
higher than ever, the price of living. Some of you know 
that without my reminding you of it. One of the chief est 
causes of the advance in prices of commodities all over the 
world is the excessive output of gold. Really the tiling 
ought to be put the other way. The real cause is that 
money is cheaper than it used to be. That is to say, a 
dollar of gold or paper, which is equivalent to gold, is 
cheaper than it used to be and will not buy as much as it 
used to buy because the gold mines are putting out such 
great quantities of gold, the like of which was never known 
in the world before. Gold, which is only a commodity 
like all other commodities, is growing less valuable all the 
time, the more of it that is mined, and therefore a given 
amount of gold will buy a less and less quantity of com- 
modities. So it has come to pass that you almost have to 
put up two dollars to buy what you used to be able to buy 
for one dollar. Now the largest cause that I know of for 
that, is the over production of gold or the great produc- 
tion of gold. I need not tell intelligent farmers that 
when you expand money, money becomes of less value and 
therefore purchases less; but we generally state it in the 
other way, that other commodities have grown high when 
in fact the medium of exchange, money, has grown less 
valuable. There are other causes also which account for 
the high prices, and some of them are the causes which you 
have laid here before me this morning— of the commodi- 
ties going through too many hands before they reach the 
consumer, and then the freight rates, although it must be 
said in justice to the railroads, that the freight rates here 

277 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

except for local hauls are not excessive. They are far 
greater in Eiurope than they are here, gentlemen, as you 
happen to know. The trouble in this country has not 
been excessive freight rates. The trouble has been that 
the railroads have assumed to give favorite rates to a few 
people. That has been the trouble. And so far as I had 
any advice to give when that matter was rife in Washing- 
ton, I stated to the then President, who consulted me 
about it, not to try to lower rates too much but to have it 
established that no man could have his freight carried ex- 
cept at the same rate that every other man pays. The 
reason for that is this, that the man who can have his 
freight, whether it is oil or steel or iron or wire fence or 
what not, carried at a rate lower than his competitor, can 
thereby undersell his competitor in the market that much 
and drive him out of business, and thereby create the 
monopolies and trusts that have been created all over this 
country. I do not think there is a man in this country 
that fears honest competition against anybody. We 
have all got bravery enough to be ready to comj)ete with 
any comer and all comers; but when you are the pro- 
ducer of a commodity and you have a rival that you are 
competing with producing the same commodity and you 
find that he can have his commodity carried over the rail- 
roads of the comitry to the markets at a price so much 
below you that he can undersell you that much in the 
market and destroy your business, then the railroads are 
being used for the most damnable purpose that anything 
was ever put to in this world. And it is my belief that all 
of the trusts in the country, substantially, were built up 
on favoritism in freight rates. Y^ou would just as leave 
compete in your line with any man, but if he can have his 
commodity carried to market at one-third less than you 
are paying or one-half less, why all you can do is to throw 
up your hands and sell out your business to him and quit. 
Now, the government is doing I suppose all it can do to 
stop that. Some people are so easily deceived that they 
think it all has been stopped. I am not quite so credulous 

278 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS A ND SPEECHES 

as that. Ill fact, I happen to know that it lias not been 
stopped. Bnt in the course of time, 1 snppose we will 
stop it some way or another. The people of the country 
will stop it. Aiid then those monopolies cannot be created 
out of railroad rates any longer and thereby get the con- 
trol of prices in the hands of a few people of the country. 

Now I have mentioned to you the two chief things 
that are meddling with and disturbing prices — the great 
output of gold, which we cannot complain of because that 
is in the province of Almighty God and the laws of nature. 
The other we can complain of and do complain of and it 
must stop. 

Now, your object to get your things down here and 
get them to the consumer as near to the price that you re- 
ceive as possible, is most laudable. I assure you we will 
be glad to get them at that price if you can manage to give 
them to us. You may encounter a hard job, but if you 
persevere and your movement spreads, why I think some- 
thing can be accomplished on that line. I can only say 
that while I am here I shall be very glad to meet you and 
assist you in any way that I can. 



Advice on Entering Politics 

(Speech at the Dinner of the Politics Club of Columbia Uni- 
versity, March 13, 1913.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the Politics Club : I 
notice you have good lungs any way, whatever else may be 
the case. I certainly am very glad to meet a body of 
young men like this. It almost makes me feel young my- 
self, if that were possible. At all events it makes me feel 
quiet, and think of some tilings that I do not think of in 
the surroundings of my daily life. Most of the people 
that I meet, or many of those I meet, are mere self-seekers, 
without sincerity. I suppose you know there is a large 
percentage of the city that is wholly corrupt. You are 
young politicians; you are associated under a club of 

279 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

that name. Your desire is to go into politics from high 
motives. But the first disappointment you will encounter 
is that you will be suiTounded by men of bad motives, low 
motives, selfish motives. Y^ou all think now that you have 
high motives, and I have no doubt it is so. Whether 
you will preserve them or not is another thing, when you 
get out into contact with the world. But you must try to. 
1 hardly know what to say to you. I was looking over 
the letter of Mr. Trimble, your chairman, on the way up 
to see what cue I could get ; and he says he would like me 
to speak to you about the duties of young men entering 
politics and the problems they will encounter. And 
then he wants me to tell what are the most serious dif- 
ficulties in the government of a great city. Just think of 
that. I have a notion to begin at the last of his queries 
and tell them, but may be it is just as well that I should 
not do so. The duties of young men entering politics is 
what he mentions first. Now your duties are about the 
same wherever you may be; but of course they vary ac- 
cording to the locality in which you start life. I suppose 
some of you intend to be lawyers, and some doctors ; some 
are going into business and some will be engineers, and 
so on. Wherever your lot is cast, if you enter politics you 
will have duties to perform. Every man should enter 
politics. That is to say, every man should j)erform the 
duties of a citizen, whether he be a college graduate or 
not. But I suppose you have something further than that 
in mind. Y^ou contemplate that you shall actually go 
into the field of politics. Y^ou contemplate jDOSsibly that 
you will run for office. You all contemplate no doubt you 
will have my office in a few years, those of you who live 
in the city of New York at all events; and I am sure I 
wish you all to have your wish in that respect. But of 
all things first analyze your mind and see what your mo- 
tives are. See whether you are going into pohtics really 
from high motives or not. Are you going into politics to 
help the community or to help yourself? It is very easy 
to deceive ourselves. But my advice to you is to go into 

280 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECITES 

politics only after a firm resolve tliat your whole and only 
motive is to help the conmiunity in which your lot is cast. 
Just forget yourself. Don't be a self seeker. If you 
go into pohtics in that spirit then you will do much good. 
If you go into pohtics simply to seek your own personal 
advancement and welfare then it w^ere much better tliat 
you stay out of politics. We can do nothing in this world 
worth w^hile unless we are inspired by the motive of doing- 
good to others. All the great men of the world, except 
those wdio were moved by ambition and by wrong motives, 
and are miscalled great, became great in that way. The 
philosophers were great in that way. ISIoses was great 
in that way. Jesus was great in that way. They lived 
for others, not for themselves. And at the same time it 
is no harm for me to say that those who live in that way 
take care of themselves also. At the same time others 
take care of them. But do not be a self-seeker. For 
yomig men to go into politics just to be gabby little fel- 
lows, making a noise and trying to get into office, is a very 
poor way of entering life. Indeed, do not do it. Have a 
motive — a high motive; and then do the best you can, 
whatever your pursuit in life may be. Everybody has 
duties. JSIr. Trimble said. What are vour duties in enter- 
ing office? Why, we all have duties whether we enter 
politics or not, and our duties are to our fellow men. We 
have a duty to our f amity, to those nearest us; but the 
greatest dutv of all that w^e have is the duty which we owe 
to humanity, then to our own country, and then to those 
around us. Some would say the country first and hu- 
manity second. That is a false theory. Let your hori- 
zon be just as mde as you can make it. Y^ou will be all 
the greater for that. And you cannot be really great un- 
less your horizon is the horizon of all humanity. Xo one 
was ever great with a less horizon than that. Do not 
over-shoot the mark either. Do not be too eager. Be 
self-contained. Know w^hat you w^ant and then pursue 
that course. Whv, when you look around and see the lit- 
tie noisy and gabby politicians you certainly have no wish 

281 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 



to join tliem, if that is what you mean. That would be 
miserable business. Be self-contained. Very often 
young men entering into politics want to go to the Legis- 
lature. They generally start out that way. That is the 
way Lincoln started out, and most of the great men that 
you can mention. Well, what course should you pursue 
in that respect? Why, you should go there for a purpose, 
if that be the w^ay you start. How many wrecks I have 
seen at Albany in my time. I never was a member of the 
Legislature, but I have been an onlooker for a long time. 
I did think once when I was a young chap like you that 
that was the height of my ambition, to be a member of 
the Assembly, and it is a great ambition too. But I saw 
young men go there, and it was failure after failure. The 
reason was as a rule that they had no sand in them. They 
had no moral stamina. They did not know enough when 
they went up there to go and hire a boarding house about 
two miles away from the Capitol, and go there every time 
the Legislature adjourned, night or morning. In place 
of that they would run out of the Legislature and then 
run down to the hotel and stand in the lobby like great 
men, and the rest of the time they would stand at the bar. 
And they would talk to everybody that came along, and 
made themselves little. In that way they acquired frivo- 
lous habits and bad habits, and they came down home 
transformed. Y^ou know what I mean. Every time I go 
to Albany or to Washington I cannot help looking at 
the people around, not only some of the legislators, but 
the people who come there. Did you ever see such a lot 
of gabby people, and so many sharpers and so many small 
people. And they look so cagy, did you ever notice? I 
was over in Washington recently, and that was the one 
thing I said to the man who was with me, " Let's get away 
from here. I never saw so many cagy looking people." 
At the Capitol — even at the White House, in the outer 
room and especially in the lobby of the hotels — every man 
a gabby, cagy little fellow. Now you avoid that. Don't 
do that. Be a self-contained man. Be a studious man. 



2S2 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS A \D SPKKCIIKS 

Why, it is enough to make one shiver to have some of tliese 
gabby httle people come near you at all, they are so smaiL. 
I acknowledge they are smart. They could give us aces 
and spades, if that be the right term, and beat us in small 
things. But 1 think we would have the best of them every 
time in large things. And that is where you want to 
stand. Be studious people. Do not give up your studies. 
Keep reading when you go out of here. If you are 
studying mathematics, continue the study of it. It is one 
of the greatest drills for the mind. That has been one of 
the solaces of my life. I don't mind saying that I hke 
now to take a problem of Euclid and pore over it and do it 
again, and think I am as smart at it as 1 was when I was 
your age, which of course I am not. And the same with 
your reading. Pick up especially works of the phil- 
osophy of history. There was once a great professor here 
in New York who wrote " The Intellectual Development 
of Europe," Professor Draper, I think he was a professor 
here in this University. The book is now somewhat out 
of date scientifically — I admit that. There are some 
errors in it. But read books like that. Read Lecky. 
Read Hallam. Read the book of Emil Reich, " Success 
Among Nations." Read Green's " History of the Eng- 
hsh People." And such books as that. And then, of 
course, other books, like the Bible and Shakespeare, and 
works of autobiography, like Franklin and Benvenuto 
CelHni. I ought not to mention Cellini again, because I 
happened to mention him not long ago, and the book stores 
here in a few days hadn't a copy left, there were so few 
people in this city that had ever read him, and yet it is one 
of the finest autobiographies ever written. Keep up your 
studious habits, and the identity which you acquire here. 
You are not doing much more here than learning how to 
learn. Unless you acquire the studious habit here you 
might as well go home to-morrow. And do not be under 
the delusion that you can get to anything great in this 
world without preparation. It is a false notion with which 
you boys and young men are sometimes deluded. I do 

283 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

not know whether any of the professors are here. But 
you are sometimes deluded by your professors. I have 
seen it often enough. You are told things that are ex- 
aggerations. Do not rely upon your genius. I know 
you are all geniuses. But nevertheless do not rely on it. 
It has been said by a man who has sense that genius is two 
per cent, inspiration and 98 per cent, perspiration. And 
that is about true. The only genius there is is the genius 
of getting ready. That is genius. No man ever lived who 
knew how to get ready better than Caesar or Napoleon; 
and yet boys coming out of college think they won their 
great victories, and did their great things, just by inspira- 
tion, by genius. Why, when Napoleon came on the field 
of battle he knew not only all the troops he had, but he 
knew where they were. He knew even where every bread 
wagon was. And he was able to pick them all up and 
throw them on the enemy because he had them in hand. 
He had got ready. He tramped around his camps at 
night in bad weather when his soldiers were asleep. And 
he went away out sometimes almost alone to reconnoiter 
the country and he knew every road and every stream and 
every obstacle. That is genius. Get ready and you are 
a genius. But if you think you can do it without getting 
ready you are more fool than genius, I can tell you that. 
And you cannot do that without keeping up your thought- 
fulness and your study. You must do it to succeed. 
Some of you think you want to be lawyers, I suppose; 
and you think you will be a great lawyer by being a talka- 
tive fellow. Never was a talkative fellow a great lawyer. 
Not even once. The saying is that no lawyer ever came 
to fame with a straight back or without a pale face. That 
tells the whole story. To be great in anything you have 
to toil terribly, in the language of Sydney Smith. There 
is no other way to do it. You have got to pay the price; 
and if you are not willing to pay the price you cannot do 
it. Some of the people in the rear of the court room think 
that fellow with an immense diamond in his shirt bosom 
and with a very loud voice is the greatest lawyer there. 

284 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS A ND SPEECHES 

But there is another chap there that they hardly hear, and 
who maybe looks quite insignificant; but the Judge and 
the jury know that he is the great lawyer. He knows 
something. The fellow with the big diamond and the big 
voice is more fit to run a slaughter house. We have such 
people here in the City of New York, I know that. Some 
of them are dead and gone, and some of them remain still. 
But do not imitate them. Take my word for it that the 
studious man, the equipped man (doctor, lawyer, engi- 
neer, business man), he is the man who will come out 
ahead of everybody else. He knows how to do it, and he 
is serious too. He does not look at his own figure all the 
time, nor does he practise before a looking glass to see 
how nice his gestures are. Yet I have heard professors 
advise boys going into politics and the law to study 
gestures and practise before looking glasses, and adjust 
their hair in a very nice manner, and all such foppery and 
foolery as that. Why, it amounts to nothing. The man 
is what amounts to something. Lincoln was a great 
lawyer — tried great cases — lost great cases — won great 
cases. You are told, maybe, in the school that he would 
not take any case unless he knew it was a good one and 
that he could win it. Don't beheve any such nonsense as 
that. He was a lawyer; and he took good cases and bad 
cases because it was his duty to do it. What would be- 
come of us if nobody would take our case unless it was a 
good one? Such talk. He was lawj^er for the Ilhnois 
Central Railroad Company for years, and defended dam- 
age suits, cases where poor fellows lost their arms and 
their legs. Do not allow these things to deceive you at 
all. Take the world as it is. Then you are told that 
Webster never lost a case; and Choate never lost a case, 
and so on. Why, they lost more cases than they won 
after they were 40 years of age, because people who had 
hard cases came to them with them. It is not the test of 
a lawyer whether he wins his case. The test is what 
equipment he brings into it, and how he conducts it. That 
is the test. And have no exaggerated notion, you young 



285 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

politicians and lawyers (the two things go together very 
largely), have no exaggerated notion about eloquence and 
oratory. Don't let them fool you about that either. I 
suppose you have all read by this time that it is said that 
Demosthenes when asked the first great requisite of ora- 
tory said " Action," and then asked for the second great 
requisite, again said " Action," and the third time he re- 
peated " Action." What kind of an orator would he be 
that was all action and nothing else? What nonsense 
when you come to analyze these things. Some of the 
greatest orators that ever lived stood still with their hands 
on the table or in their pockets. In place of action being 
the great requisite even once, let alone three times, the first 
requisite of all is a man with a purpose — an honest man, 
with an honest purpose — that is the first requisite ; and not 
some fellow who cannot keep his hands still. The next 
requisite is to have something to say, a message to deliver. 
And the third requisite, and the least of all, is the manner 
of saying it, and what gestures you will make while say- 
ing it. Now, there is the orator. You may easily learn 
from history that the greatest orators, or many of them, 
were only fair speakers, and many of them poor speakers. 
Some of them stuttered even. Lord Bacon says Moses 
stuttered. I don't know how he found it out. If the man 
is there, and the matter is there, he will make himself 
understood somehow. And of course it is well that he is 
able to make himself fairlj^ understood by the use of 
words. But he will make himself understood. And that 
is the orator. The greatest orator who survives in the 
English tongue is Burke, who emptied the House of Com- 
mons when he got up to speak. The House of Commons 
may have preferred to go out to the restaurant for tea, if 
that be what thev drank there, but the world listened to 
what he had to say. And he was a great orator. So 
have no false notions about that. Don't be a little blather- 
skite. There is an immeasurable distance between a 
blatherskite and an orator. Do not confound eloquence 
or oratorj^ with rhetoric. I have heard rhetoricians that 

286 



MAYOR GAYNOR^S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

could talk from the beginning of the week to the end in 
the most beautiful manner, but they were not orators. 
They made no slips of grammar. Their words were 
beautiful. But they were mere words. I have seen 
great feats of rhetoric, and I have heard great orators. I 
have heard great orators that some people would not 
hsten to. The greatest feat of the human voice or of 
great rhetoric that I ever heard was at Chicago at tlie Con- 
vention that nominated Grover Cleveland the last time, I 
think. It was held in a great big place called a wigwam, 
covering a block or two. Why, nobody could be heard. 
Orators came up all day from noon till midnight to the 
platform from all parts of the country, who were rated 
great orators in their locality; but they could not even be 
heard in that vast place. I did not believe there was a man 
in the world that could be heard there. I had read in books 
of men speaking to 30,000 people in the open air and 
being heard, but I did not believe it, and I do not believe 
it now, to tell the truth. And I did not believe there was 
a person in the world that could be heard in this hall of the 
convention. And yet about one o'clock in the morning 
when everybody had been yelling and everybody had been 
tired out, and every orator in the country had tried to be 
heard, I saw a man who was sitting right in front of me 
get up and go down the aisle and jump up on the reporters' 
table, and then up on the stage and lean back against a 
table on the stage preparatory to speaking. And it was 
nothing but confusion and noise. And in a few minutes, 
I mean a few moments, a few seconds, you could hear a 
pin drop all over this vast place. I could hear nothing 
but the breathing of people around me. The breath of 
people was quickened as this man proceeded. And he 
only leaned back against the table as if to say " I do not 
care one cent whether you listen to me or not; I am going 
to talk for a while." And he did talk for lialf an hour 
or more in absolute silence— the first silence that was heard 
in that convention, and the last. He was from New 
York. But I confess when he got through I could not re- 

287 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

member a thing that he had said except one, and that was 
that Grover Cleveland was the most popular man in the 
United States on every day in the year except election 
day. To this hour I do not remember another thing that 
he said. But he was a great rhetorician. I do not say 
he was a blatherskite. I leave you to judge of that. That 
was a great feat of the human voice. But what he said 
had no wings. It has not come down to you; let alone is 
it going down to after generations. The man after all 
who wins in the long run is the man of a sincere and honest 
purpose. He may be a poor speaker. He may stutter, 
or have some impediment, or have difficulty in collecting 
his thoughts. But he will be ahead at the end of the race; 
I will bet any money on that ; unless it is some little miser- 
able little twenty-yard race, or something like that. I 
am speaking now of a race where wind tells. Some of 
you may think I am jocose, but I am not. I mean every 
word of it. I have observed all these things in the course 
of my life. I have seen great statesmen, great speakers, 
great rhetoricians, and a few orators. But I am telling 
you that the man who at your age learns to be self-con- 
tained, who has no desire to be a gabby fellow, no desire 
even to be a rhetorician, but a great desire to do something, 
will beat them all in the end. You can rely upon that. 
So that is what you are here in this college for. Now vou 
see what you get by Trimble asking me to tell you how 
to enter politics. Why, if you think you want to enter 
politics to dazzle people you won't dazzle them at all. 
They will say, what a miserable little fellow he is. But 
if they see that you are a man who has some high thoughts, 
who is self-contained, who is not consumed in airing him- 
self all the time, then they will have confidence in you. 
And remember, my young friends, that silence has a won- 
derful power. I have to go out and speak at night so 
much now that I have almost forgotten it. There is a 
little book written about the power of silence, which is 
worth reading. Have no desire in entering politics, or 
entering any profession or occupation, to talk merely to 

288 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTKliS AN D Sn:i:('lli.,s 

talk. Do not talk unless you have something to say. If 
you have got something to say you have a right to talk, 
but if you only want to listen to the sound of your own 
voice like some people who come in the Board of Estimate 
downtown, why, I would say to you Don't. Simply be 
self-contained enough not to put yourself forward until 
you have got something to say, and then you will have 
people to listen to you. 

Now the next thing that Mr. Trimble said in his let- 
ter was for me to mention some things that you have to 
encounter now in the field of politics. Well, there are 
many things. The last Presidential campaign opened up 
many things. I cannot say that that campaign opened 
them up. They were rife already, but it is for us to 
broaden out to meet them squarely and fairly. If you 
are going into politics you have got to meet the growing 
situation from year to year. My advice to you is not to 
be too conservative. But of all things do not be too radi- 
cal either. The human race is like an infant learning to 
walk. It can only learn to toddle and to walk just so 
much. And if you in your great zeal run ahead shouting 
your theories you will find yourself alone after you have 
gone a little distance. Lincoln always said that he was 
not a leader at all — that he only tried to keep up with the 
people, and I think that was so. There have been events 
in the world where the theorists and people of large ideas 
got ahead of their time. That was the trouble with Jesus, 
and he lost his life through it. He went farther than they 
would follow. His motives were not merely religious, 
but political and economic, as you see in reading the Gos- 
pels. He went further than the times would go with him. 
The French Revolution leaped forward a hundred years. 
They changed the calendar. They changed everything. 
They changed the weights and measures, whicli is a curious 
study in itself. They did many great things, l^ut they 
went further than the people would follow, and the result 
was that it all doubled back on itself, and they had to go 
back to the front ranks of the people and resume the step 

289 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

by step method. To give a familiar illustration, when 
they established their weights and measures they used 
Greek terms. But, dear me, the people had been using 
their hand and their foot and common terms for weights 
and measures, and they simply would not accept the Greek 
nomenclature that thej^^ tried to impose on them. I only 
mention that as an illustration of the whole thing. And 
it is only now in France that the French people are giv- 
ing up the idea of the yard and the foot and the hands 
and so forth as standards of measure. So that while you 
must not be too conservative you must not be too radical. 
We have among us now in this country people calling them- 
selves radicals who think it is radicalism to pull everything 
up by the roots. It is radical to go to the root of matters, 
but to go to pulling everything up by the roots until you 
have something else to plant instead is the height of folly. 
The column in this room here may be rotten, but to go and 
pull it down would be only to pull the whole roof down on 
top of you. The way to do it is to prepare a better 
column and have it ready and jack up the roof and take 
the old column out and put the new one in. It is the same 
in government and in politics. You have to proceed in 
just that way. Do not be under the delusion that j^ou 
can do it in any other way. It is not possible. Y'ou 
should proceed patientlj^ No matter how advanced your 
ideas are and what great projects you have in mind you 
must always remember that to carry them out you have to 
begin at the point where you stand, and go step by step 
up to them and do them just as you would do if you were 
a carpenter in fashioning something out of a plank or a 
board; or if you were a blacksmith making a horseshoe, 
you could not make a horseshoe by snapping a finger, nor 
can you do anything else in this world in that way. You 
have to do it by degrees and in an orderly manner. So 
that is one lesson you will have to learn in politics. It is 
better that you learn it here than afterwards. It is bet- 
ter that you start out that way than to run half your 
career only to find that you have got to come back and 

290 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

begin over again that way. Every little while some mis- 
erable demagogue comes along. Sometimes he is a ricli 
fellow, maybe sometimes he is poor. If he is an 80 mil- 
lion dollar demagogue he is the worst kind of a dema- 
gogue, I assure you, and he will get people to run after 
him and will tell them not how it should be done, but that 
he will do it. People do not stop to think how he will do 
it. Why, he can only do things through law and througli 
the machinery of goverrmient. If you need new laws 
you have to pass new laws. And we very often think 
(and that is one of the falsest notions in politics) that 
we can cure ills by passing laws. Not so. The distance 
between the passing of a law and its observance is often 
immeasurable. No law is worth anything unless it is 
backed up by the community. And even then you have 
hard work to get it enforced. The Ten Commandments 
are not too well observed so far, are they? And yet they 
are backed up by the community and by all the preachers. 
Good men in office will produce good government even 
with bad laws, but bad men in office will not produce 
good government with the best of laws. Remember that, 
too. So that the making of laws is not everything. There 
are some people w^ho have an itch to change the law all the 
time and make a new law. They think that will do the 
whole thing. There is something the matter in the Police 
Department. Forthwith they want a new law; when it is 
not law at all that is wanted, but unceasing work for years 
maybe to bring about the remedy. Mr. Waldo has 
spoken of the Police Department. It is a fair example. 
Committees are sitting and advising Albany what laws 
to pass because there are a few corrupt policemen. Why, 
you cannot stop a grafter by passing a law. You have 
got to catch him or stop him in advance. Tliere is no 
other way. There is a committee down from the Legis- 
lature taking the views of people on the same subject, and 
everybody Avho thinks he has a view is very eager to come 
forward to give it ; and I might say those who haven't any 
views at all are eager to come forward and air themselves. 

291 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

And yet, What is the trouble? Why, it all comes down 
to a simple thing in the Police Department. We have 
been fighting it ever since Waldo came in and before. 
When I became Mayor the Commissioner that preceded 
him entered upon it and we have been at it ever since. 
For a long time there have been some corrupt police in 
the city. A few years ago there were many. There were 
heads of police who were going out millionaires, one after 
the other. I do not think anybody is becoming a million- 
aire under Waldo. I have not heard of it. I doubt it. 
Things are much better now than they ever were before. 
Mr. Waldo spoke of the fixed posts and the police out on 
duty all over the city night and day, and what he does to 
keep them there. Why, j^ou people over here (some live 
maybe in Brooklyn, where there are nearly two millions 
of people, or in Queens, or maybe in Richmond, or in the 
Bronx), is there any graft of the police there? If there 
be any it is an isolated case of somebody getting a dollar 
or two. There is no one there to tempt them. You can 
find them all over this great city night and day doing 
their duty like clockwork, ready for any emergency, or 
to answer any call. They are not even tempted. But 
here in Manhattan, which some people think is the city, 
there are two or three districts where all the gamblers and 
all the harlots and all the corrupt people congregate, and 
want to do illegal things, and in these two or three dis- 
tricts they are constantly bribing the police. And yet 
from all this hue and cry you would think that that was 
general all over this city. Why, it is only local in two or 
three places, and there we have almost done away with it. 
And look at recent events. You would think, I say, that 
this corruption was general. Why, all that has been re- 
vealed that happened since I am Mayor was revealed by 
the enforcement of the law by Mr. Waldo, and Mr. 
Cropsey his predecessor. All the indictments and prose- 
cutions have grown out of two cases. First was the case 
of Rosenthal, who was murdered. Well, what is his case ? 
Wh}^, during Mr. Cropsey's administration and Mr. 

292 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

Waldo's he opened twelve ganibliiio- places, one alter tiie 
other. He had been a gambler all his life. And those 
twelve places were taken possession of by the police one 
after the other, under the law of nuisance, on which basis 
I put the police after I became Mayor. The folly of 
going up and arresting a man in a gambling house and 
soberly coming down with him, when the roulette wheel 
begins to start before you get to the street! It is incon- 
ceivable that any one would indulge in such folly. The 
way we do is, when we take places like that, to take pos- 
session of them and hold them until they are vacated, and 
that you young lawyers will find is perfectly legal. They 
are a public nuisance. Houses where gamblers and bad 
people resort are i)ublic nuisances, and even citizens can 
go and take possession of them. But the police are hired 
for that purpose, and that is the way we do it. And 
Rosenthal's twelve places were closed one after the other, 
and the twelfth place was in the hands of the police for 
three weeks the night he was shot. They were in posses- 
sion night and day. And when his twelfth place was 
taken away from him he then revealed the fact that a lieu- 
tenant of police guaranteed him for that twelfth place 
that if he gave him a certain amount of monev a week the 
place would have immunity. But did it get immunity? 
No, not at all. That lieutenant of police could not give 
him immunity. The whole thing was in the hands of the 
Commissioner under the squad which was organized for 
that purpose, and he sent the squad with the warrant 
which had been obtained, and took possession of the place; 
and that led to all these revelations, forced by the police 
department itself. And yet you would think that some- 
body else did all that. And we furnished all the wit- 
nesses, every witness, that convicted all these people, 
every one of them. The lieutenant of police was con- 
victed, and yet you would think that the police depart- 
ment was engaged in trying to shield everybody in place 
of stopping them. That is politics. Do not go into that 
sort of politics. Be a man first and a politician second, 

293 



k 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and you will come out better in the long run. The other 
case from which the revelations came was the case of Sipp. 
He kept another kind of house — a horrible house — 1 
would not describe it even among men. And when the 
police took possession of this house and held it, then he 
began to reveal that he paid a patrolman or somebody 
money, and these later indictments have all come out of 
that. After revealing something he ran away, and we 
had him brought back; and really we were denounced for 
bringing him back. Such is the state of the times in 
which we tried to do our duty. Committees have been 
going on taking evidence of things which happened under 
Theodore Roosevelt when he was Commissioner, and since, 
and the headlines of the newspapers, and even the matter 
(after cutting all the dates out), would indicate that they 
were happening now. That is the way things are done. 
I branched off into that as a mere illustration. But to 
come back to things that you will have to encounter and 
solve, take this great question between capital and labor 
which is now on the eve of solution. You will have to de- 
cide the employer's liability. You will have to decide on 
the laws to pension employees who are hurt and maimed 
and also those who are too old to work. The City of New 
York does it now. We do it in our street cleaning depart- 
ment, and in other departments. And we now have a gen- 
eral law for the pensioning of people after a certain 
age and with certain infirmities by the city. I do not men- 
tion the police one, because that is rather different. But 
the city is setting the example in this matter. Why should 
not the manufactories of the country do likewise? Do 
you know any reason? Do you know why a man who has 
lost his leg or his arm in the industrial pursuits of the 
State should be turned out to beg? I confess I do not 
know a single reason. In Europe it is not so. All over 
Europe — in Prussia as early as 1847 — these pension laws 
have been passed and have been in force ever since. We 
lag behind the whole world in these matters. But oh, you 
sav, How could that be done? That would tax the manu- 

294 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECITES 

facturer to death. Why, the tax would he so small that 
they would not Imow that they were paying it. They are 
paying more now to the indemnity companies to indemnify 
them against accidents than they would pay under such a 
tax, I think. I certainly think they are paying as much. 
Nor does it fall on the manufacturer. He pays it in the 
first instance, to be sure, but it enters into the cost of his 
product, and he gets it back when he sells his product. 
If a wheel flies off an engine or a machine is broken, he 
has to pay for that, doesn't he? And it enters into the 
cost of manufacture. If a man's leg is broken or ripped 
off why should not that also be paid for on the same prin- 
ciple and enter into the cost of manufacture. For a fa- 
miliar illustration, you all buy hats. Why, the extra price 
of a hat under such a system would be so slight that you 
would not know you were paying it. That is the way it 
works out. The manufacturer pays it. In some coun- 
tries it is a tax on wages simply, but the manufacturer 
generally pays the tax on wages, the tax on the pay roll, 
and that goes into the state fund, and all these people are 
provided for. When they become superannuated and un- 
able to work any more they do not have to go to the poor 
house. If we send them to the poor house we have to 
take care of them, don't we? Why not then take care of 
them in some decent manner, these maimed and crippled 
workers, when they are no longer able to work? By what 
reason will any one longer deny them the natural right to 
be supported by the community whom they serve? The 
community would not feel it. It would be for the benefit 
of the whole community. It simply enters into the price 
of all manufactured articles. This matter was discussed 
somewhat in the late campaign. The Progressive Party 
brought it forward more than the other two parties. It 
is a thing some of us have been talking about for a long 
time. Then there are other things especially that you 
young lawyers should begin to think of. We have now 
the courts declaring acts of the Legislature void which 
we passed to bring about these economic things. Now 

295 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

I will give you a few illustrations in this state, passing over 
them rapidly. The first one I will pick out is the tobacco- 
tenement house case in this city. The Legislature passed 
a law that tobacco should not be manufactured in tene- 
ment houses in this city. They passed it as a health 
measure. Good people who go around among the poor 
saw the evils of having tobacco in small tenements poison- 
ing the children and women, and making disagreeable 
odors, had it passed. But our courts declared it void. 
The ground they put it on was that it was taking away 
from this tenant in this flat his liberty and his property. 
It was taking away from him the liberty to do as he liked 
in his own house and taking away his property, inasmuch 
as it took away one of the uses of his leasehold. Now just 
think of that. Why, if there is any principle of law 
that we know it is that a man cannot use his property as 
he likes. He has to use it so as not to injure the com- 
munity. I would not like to let people with automobiles 
use them as they like, nor people with tenement houses 
either. That is all subject to regulation. This comes 
under what we call the police law — health laws — laws for 
the benefit of the community. But they said it took away 
his liberty and his property, and Magna Charta says you 
shall not take away liberty or property except by due 
process of law. I wonder if King John or any of the 
barons thought that meant liberty to poison children in a 
tenement house with the fumes of tobacco. Why, in that 
time they took it literally. Liberty — a man should not 
be arrested, locked up, by the King, or that his property 
should not be taken by the King as he marched through 
the country for military purposes or anything else. The 
next thing was the bake-oven case. A law was passed 
that they should not work in these bake-ovens more than 
ten hours a day. You happen to know that it is night 
work as a rule and in an awfully hot place. So the Legis- 
lature thought it well in order that we might have healthy 
bread that they should not work there and injure their 
health any longer than ten hours a day, and that was de- 

29G 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

clared void on llie ground that it took away I'loni the 
baker his hberty, namely, his hberty to work tiie whole 24. 
hours if he wanted to. The other one was the law foi-- 
bidding women to be employed in factories between 9 
o'clock at night and 5 in the morning. It is almost pre- 
posterous to talk about it, nine at night to five in the morn- 
ing for women to work in factories. But they declared 
that void on the ground that it deprived her of her liberty 
to work all night if she saw fit; whereas it was a health 
law, a law to safeguard the women in their health, and 
thereby have healthy children and a healthy race. The 
next one was the Employers' Liability law% which I have 
already spoken about; and that was declared void on the 
same ground, that it took the property of the manufacturer 
without due process of law. Magna Charta w^as brought 
in again and the Constitution of the State. Why, it didn't 
take his property at all. As I have already told you, if 
he paid the tax it went into the cost of manufacture, and 
he got it back in the price of the articles. They are pass- 
ing one in the Congress now, and no doubt the Supreme 
Court of the United States will declare it valid. The 
two other cases that I have mentioned to you are the ones 
with regard to the employment of minors. That statute 
forbade children under 14 years of age being employed in 
factories. It simply forbade them being employed at all, 
and made a severe penalty for employing them. And yet 
when the cases came up in court the courts said, Y"es, the 
employers are forbidden to employ them. Nevertheless, 
the child cannot recover if he was negligent, if he got too 
near the machine, if he put his hand into it, if he fell into 
it. I tried a case myself when a judge where the boy 
went up on a ladder and fell down into the machine, and 
on appeal they said he had no business up on the ladder, 
and he would not have been hurt if he had stayed where 
he was put — just as though the law did not mean what it 
said, that it forbade him to be there at all, and to allow 
him to be there at all was what caused the accident. The 
other law was requiring all machines to be guarded or 

297 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

muzzled. The law prescribed that they must be muzzled 
by the manufacturer, and yet when a man was hurt by get- 
ting into an unmuzzled cogwheel, they said by working 
there and seeing it was unmuzzled he took the risk, and 
therefore he could not recover. Took the risk? Why, 
what could he do. He had to live. The manufacturers 
could all leave them off, and everybody would have to 
work and take the risk. And yet there is a statute requir- 
ing that all these machines be muzzled. Now you young 
men have to meet all these economic and industrial things, 
and I mention a few of them to you to-night. I have just 
skimmed over it. I just want to open up your minds to 
things that confront you, and that are now on the eve of 
solution. Fifteen years from now they will all be solved, 
not by me, and those who live with me, but by you young 
men. That I am absolutely certain of. Just as soon 
as you get these things in your minds you will solve them. 
Now the last thing in Mr. Trimble's letter was " The 
chief obstacle to good government in the city." The 
chief obstacle, gentlemen, is a corrupt press. There is 
nothing that confronts the American people in some parts 
of this country which requires a remedy more than the 
license of the press. Those put in office by you have got 
to submit to abuse day after day, year after year, how- 
ever honest or however they are striving to do their duty. 
Falsehood, lying and abuse day after day. If you say 
anything about them, why, they are awfully thin skinned, 
you know. They feel it right off. I do not say that the 
entire press here are that way, but we certainly have some 
that are that way; some in the hands of demagogues and 
scamps — you can call them nothing else. For instance, 
we have had the subways under way here ever since I came 
in as Mayor. We took the matter up with the resolve to 
solve it and to solve it in the best way we possibly could. 
My associates are honest, intelligent men. They had no 
purpose in the world except to do this thing right. And 
yet we had no sooner entered upon it than certain news- 
papers here laid down the manner in which we should do 

298 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D SPEECFIKS 

it, and because we didn't see it our duty to do it in the 
way they told us we must do it, why, for two long years 
we have had to endure the abuse of these scoundrels. I 
do not hesitate to say that they are scoundrels. That does 
not include all the newspaj^er proprietors here by any 
means, but you know whom it includes, unless you don't 
read these filthy papers at all. We held conferences in 
which this great matter was discussed from day to day, but 
we would leave the City Hall only to see these newspapers 
held up by the newsboys with the great headhnes: " The 
Subway Steal," and the " Subway Deal," and the " Sub- 
way Job," and the city being sold out to Tom Ryan, who 
has no more to do with it than the man in the moon by the 
way. The city being " turned over to Morgan & Com- 
pany." The city " being looted by Belmont," and so on, 
who by the way also has not the slightest thing to do with 
the matter. And it has gone on for two years in j ust that 
sort of way. One of the largest things in the whole 
world is this subway business, in point of engineering, in 
point of legal difficulties and financial difficulties. It is 
the most difficult problem on the face of the earth. And 
we have been working away on that, only to endure this 
abuse from day to day. Two days ago we had the final 
hearing in the Board of Estimate and the room was filled 
by respectable people. But five poor people, against 
whom I desire to say nothing — maybe they were mental 
defectives — passed before us comparing us to Boss Tweed, 
and warning us that this robbery should not go on, and, 
in the language of one of them, that this rotten contract 
should not be permitted, and that we were a band of 
thieves as one of them said. To all of which we listened 
in patience because it was as nothing compared to what 
these vile scoundrels who own these newspapers had said 
of us for two years continuously. Why, they provoke 
these people to do it. They provoke people to physic- 
ally assassinate you, let alone assassinating your character. 
Roosevelt was assassinated in the last campaign by these 
scoundrelly people. They provoked it. The fellow 

299 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

pulled their editorials out of his pocket to show why he 
was doing it. The moral assassin is worse than the physi- 
cal assassin, especially these poor mentally deficient peo- 
ple who read these things and take them seriously. Now 
I mention this thing for the sake of my associates. I 
have now been a long time in public matters. I entered 
political matters when I was a young fellow, about the age 
of some of you now in this room, and I have been at it 
nearly ever since in one way and another. For many 
years on the outside. I had no desire to hold office at all. 
I enjoyed the work on the outside. And I have got to 
that point where nothing said about me affects me much. 
Nothing that could happen to me would affect me much. 
I think I would be satisfied under most any circumstances. 
I think we all ought to feel that way, especially if you are 
going into political life, young men. Take things as they 
come. Whatever God's will mav be of me, I am content. 
Just say that over and over to yourselves if you are going 
into public life, because you will have much to endure, be- 
cause you will have, I suppose, newspapers of that kind 
still left maybe when you begin your careers, and they will 
tell you what to do and if you don't do it they will try to 
blackmail you into doing it. They will try to coerce you 
into doing it. If you don't do it they will abuse you. 
Worse than that, scoundrels will come to you with arti- 
cles written up about you and ask you to read them and 
say they have some intention of publishing them in such 
and such a paper. All these things are resorted to. And 
some of them say (the thing happened to me when I was 
a younger man than I am now with regard to a paper here 
in this city), how much is it worth to you not to publish 
it in that paper. I wrote a letter to the proprietor of that 
paper but never got a word back from him. He was 
probably no better than the fellow who offered me the 
article. You will encounter all these things, but you will 
have to stand up against them. There is nobody on this 
earth more despicable than the man who comes into public 
office and gives way to newspaper dictation. That is not 

300 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S PKECllKS 

government. The same may be said of a man who ^ives 
way to clamor of any kind, especially if it is newspaper 
clamor or created by newspapers. Why, they have the 
effrontery to lay down what you must do, but under your 
official oath you think another course is the preferable 
one, and then you have got to be called a thief. Your 
children in school and in colleges like this, and your daugh- 
ters in boarding school, will have to see these things in the 
papers about you, and be twitted about it. It is a condi- 
tion that you young men coming into public life will have 
to confront and do away with. Men are staying out of 
public life on account of it, and men who are in public 
life, sooner than to be the victims of these scoundrels and 
have their daughters in school and their sons and their 
wives mortified day after da}^ are willing to get out. 
And it is so in several parts of this country, and it is time 
that it was stopped. And I will say to you young men 
that that also is a mission that j^ou have. You can do a 
great deal now in your own way in that respect. It is an 
awful thing. Why, my associates are as incapable of 
stealing as any man on this earth, or of doing a wrong 
thing. And yet it is a steal and a deal and a job, and the 
turning of the city over to private interests, and so on, 
without a word of truth. The matter is done entirely 
for the interest of the city. I suppose you young men 
all know what the subAvay contract is. I w^ill just tell 
you in three words in closing. We have a subway 
here now. It was built entirely by the money of 
this city. No man put a dollar into it, except the city. 
And when we came to extend the subways the question was 
whether we would build an independent system or whether 
we should extend this present subway so as to have a single 
5 cent fare all over the city. If we built an independent 
system here there would be two roads and two fares, and 
to transfer here and there you would have to pay an addi- 
tional 5 cents. In looking the whole field over we saw the 
right thing to do was to extend our present system and 
we went about to do that. The city lacked funds to do all 

301 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

that. But the city has to build it. And the city owns it 
as soon as it is built. The city has absolute ownership of 
the subways. But it does not operate them. We lease 
them out for operation. And not having money enough, 
or credit enough to do this gigantic work, wliich takes 
nearly $325,000,000, the operating companies said that 
they would advance to the city what the city lacked, and 
we were only too glad to do it. The city can only borrow 
up to 10 per cent, of its real estate valuations, and that 
limit is almost reached. It would take us 25 years to com- 
plete the work of building, but the operating companies 
said we will put in part of the money. And then these 
newspapers said that on that account they were going to 
own the roads. Why, under the statute they cannot build 
or own them. But they can advance the money to the 
city to build, and the city is glad to get it because the city 
is short of funds to do it. And they put the equipment in 
entirely. And yet some people are calling on the city not 
only to build but to equip and to operate when we have 
not half money enough to build, let alone equip. These 
companies put their monej^ in. But does the city obligate 
itself to pay them back? Not one dollar. We refused. 
We said to them, if you put this money in you must de- 
pend on the earnings of the roads to get it back. You 
must depend on the earnings of the roads for every dol- 
lar of interest and sinking fund. The city will agree to 
pay nothing whatever. And that is the way the thing is. 
Out of the earnings they are paid the interest and sink- 
ing fund, and in the same way the city is paid interest and 
sinking fund on its money, the part it puts in. And all 
over that is divided equally between the contracting com- 
panies and the city. Now that is the whole contract. And 
yet maybe some of you think that the subways are to be 
built and owned by these companies. Why, they have to 
turn their checks over to the city month by month to build. 
Look at the papers and see the city advertising for con- 
tracts to build. We are building one in Broadway already. 
And it is going on, and also those in the Bronx and in 

302 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AN D STEECHES 

Queens. The city advertises and gives out the contracts 
and builds them. The companies which operate them said 
to the city, we will put up what you lack, so as to have 
them built speedily and be ready for operation. They 
have to rely on the earnings for the interest, sinking fund 
and principal — the sinking fund of course pays the prin- 
cipal in about 40 years, you can figure that up for your- 
selves. And yet look at the vile abuse, the charges of 
thievery and jobbery and dishonesty that my associates 
have had to endure. And some of them young men. 
Some of them not so much older than some of you here, 
starting out in life with such abuse. You think probably 
that we should hire lawyers to bring libel suits every day. 
Well there are none of us who can afford that. When 
some 80 millionaire scamp owns a newspaper he can hire 
lawyers by the dozen or by the score, but j^ou cannot; you 
have not got the funds. And I have not seen any great 
eagerness on the part of the citizens of this city to come 
forward to make up a fund to enable as to do so so far. 
They look on. And yet I am perfectly satisfied that we 
have the good will of the community. And that they 
understand that we have done right and done the honest 
thing. Now you are going into politics, some of you, and 
you will have to prepare yourself for all these things. Y^ou 
will have to be men of iron. If you have a weak heart you 
will be dead in a short time. If you are nervous they will 
kill you sure. Some people have to go to bed over these 
things. But after a while we grow used to it. I cannot 
say we grow used to it, that would be going too far. If 
a man was a bachelor with nobody dependent on him he 
might grow used to it, but a man with a wife and sons and 
daughters, I do not think he can ever grow used to it, be- 
cause he has to think of them. 

Now, young men, I wish you well. I have said more 
than I intended to say to you, but if you start out as I 
said to you in the beginning, with settled habits, with 
studious habits, and with a purpose and witli a resolve to 
be steady workers and persevere, you can be just as sure 

303 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

as you are here that you will come out all right in the end 
and that the end won't be very far off either. 



Conditions in New York 

(Remarks at the East Side Club, New York City, November 12, 

1912.) 

Mr. Chairman and Gentlemen of the East Side Club: 
I certainly hope, more than that, I know from the temper 
of you, that you will do much good in tliis part of the city. 
This programme of having city officials come here and 
explain the working of their departments is capital. I 
suppose that is why you called me first to start it. So keep 
it up. I will not say much about my own department and 
about myself. There are other people saying enough 
about me without my saying anything. Maybe I would 
make it worse than they do if I went into it. The card 
here says the club is appointed to aid in securing perma- 
nent good government for the city of New York through 
the election and appointment of honest public officers. 
That expresses the whole thing. And Mr. Lustgarten 
says it is made up of both parties. That is a slip of the 
tongue. He ought to say all parties, because we all know 
that there are now three big ones. And I understand also 
that a good many others are loose, especially doAvn in this 
part of the city. That means I suppose that on election 
day you will not vote as mere machines, that you will not 
vote as the mere automaton of any party or any party 
leader but as you think you ought to vote. I must confess 
it has always been astonishing to me that in local govern- 
ment people are so reluctant to vote otherwise than accord- 
ing to their national party and national pohtics. Now I 
would like to know what national politics have to do with 
local affairs anywhere in this country much less in the city 
of New Y^ork. And yet I hear men all the time saying, 
" Why, I didn't vote the Republican ticket, or the Demo- 
cratic ticket, at the last municipal election, because it was 

304 



MAYOR GAYNOIl'S LETTERS AN D SPEECHES 

not my party." And some of them go further and say, 
" My grandfather was a Repnbhcan or a Democrat, and 
my father was, and I am, and I always will be." What a 
howling wilderness is in the head of such people as that, 
especially when they apply it to local affairs. How does 
any man know that in national affairs he will remain in 
the same party till he dies ? Only a man that knows noth- 
ing says any such thing as that. We have a Bull ^loose 
party now, made up in six months or less, and half of those 
who are in it never dreamed of being in it, I suppose, until 
the election was coming on. So that your non-partisan- 
ship to be effective has to be intelligent. Why, in national 
politics a man that is a Republican has to stand up to his 
principles on election day; and the man who is a Democrat 
has to stand up Hke a man to his. But when a local elec- 
tion comes around, why on earth should he vote according 
to his national politics? No reason when you vote for an 
alderman or a mayor or any other local officer who has 
simply local duties to perform and has nothing to do with 
national politics whatever. So we ought to have national 
politics standing alone ; state politics standing alone ; local 
politics standing alone, absolutely alone. And for that 
reason in 1894 the constitution of this state enacted that 
all local elections should be in years when there was no 
national election, and the Legislature last year passed a 
law separating the state ballot from the national ballot in 
order to give the people a chance to vote independently. 
I do not know how they came to do that, but they did it. 
Some of them were bemoaning it after they did it, and I 
beheve they did a good job without knowing it. And 
they had better leave it alone. People knew how to vote 
anyhow, and they vote as they liked anyhow. INIr. Lust- 
garten has spoken of the talk in past years about the East 
Side. Every infamy and every crime was attributed to 
this locahty in the city. I do not want to take anything 
to myself, but I believe I stood up against it from the 
start.* I said before I ran for office and I have said it often 
since that the people down here were just as intelligent 

305 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

and just as moral, and maybe a little more so, as in some 
other parts of the city where the people think they are a 
great deal better. But there was such a patronizing air 
about tilings down here. People came slumming and peek- 
ing in your windows, seeing how you lived and what you 
ate, and so on; called to see what your wife was doing; 
and she knew her business maybe better than they did. 
Their more fit place probably would have been to stay home 
and take care of their own house. You know, I suppose, 
that there is crime everywhere. There is immorality every- 
where. And vice everyM^here. But there are certain 
preachers and others in this town whose head when you 
mention vice is filled with only one thing, one nasty vice. 
How their head is so filled with it I don't know. There 
certainly must be some reason for it. When I say vice 
I include all the vices, and I do not forget bearing false 
witness against your neighbor either, or lying about pub- 
lic officials. I include them all. But the proportion of 
vice down here is not greater than elsewhere. The statis- 
tics show that. You have a great population here. Your 
chairman said one million people live down here. I hadn't 
thought it so large as that. That is an awful congestion 
of people. The tendency of people seems to be to get to- 
gether, to get their heads as close together as they can, and 
then complain of congestion. If all the people on this 
globe were brought here to the city and stood up on their 
feet, each one would have two square feet, I believe. All 
the people of this earth could stand up in the city of New 
York, and have I think two square feet to shuffle around in. 
And all the people of this earth could be brought down 
into Texas and get three acres each. So you see there are 
not so many people on this earth compared with the space 
of this earth after all. Why they all want to get down 
here on the East Side is more than I can understand. It 
must be a pretty good place. And crime is incident to 
a community like this as to all others. There is crime out 
in the country. There is immorality in the country. 
There is theft in the country. I live in the country half 

306 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECH i:s 



the year, so I can talk by the book; and I was brou<rht 
up also in the country. So that the saying that we often 
hear that God made the city, but the devil made the small 
town, has some truth in it. Y^ou have had down here 
lately a cropping out of crime that has attracted the at- 
tention of everybody, and in my judgment altogether too 
much has been made of it. A handful of criminals get to- 
gether and do a murder. Why that happens all over the 
world. One member of the police force out of ten thou- 
sand w^as found to be in with these criminals and taking 
graft from them, and making money out of the community 
with them ; and the murder was the result. And you would 
think to hear some people talk, and you would think from 
reading some of our dirty low-lived newspapers that not 
only was this section here of the city, but the whole city 
reeking wdth vice and crime; whereas the contrary is the 
case. The alderman of old London who is to be the next 
Lord Mayor was in to see me not long ago, and he said 
the thing that attracted him most of all in this city — and 
he walked all over it out of curiosity night and day — was 
the absolute outward propriety of the streets everywhere 
that he w^ent in all sections of the city. He said he never 
in his Hfe, and he had travelled all over Europe, had seen 
so few^ evil women in the street, so few drunken people, so 
few disorderly people. He said it w^as the most orderly 
city that he ever saw in the streets and outwardly. Why, 
I told him we all knew that. But he probably had been 
reading some of our dirty newspapers who are always de- 
filing this city. Now the mere fact that a lieutenant of 
poHce went wrong astonished me none. Why it did not 
start the circulation in my blood. I would not have been 
surprised if some of the top people in the police force had 
been caught at it, but it was a heutenant. There was noth- 
ing extraordinary at all. And yet tliis city has been belied 
all over the earth as having a police force made up entirely 
of grafters, clubbers, and disorderly characters of all kinds. 
Well I have done w^hat I could to stop that sort of thing 
in all the departments, and especially in the police depart- 

307 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

merit; and I believe I have done more in the police de- 
partment than in any other. I was told here to-night that 
the police in this section of the city are very different from 
what they were a few years ago. I was told that they 
mind their own business and do not meddle with orderly 
people. I was told that they no longer smash into places 
and intrude into places and thereby collect graft out of 
people who do not want to have their doors smashed in. 
And I was glad to hear it. Some of the people did not 
know what I was driving at. 

I am sorry to say that some clergymen when I have 
said that this city must first of all have outward order 
and decency preserved, hold me up as upholding all se- 
cret crime and indecency. Rabbi Wise you know gives 
me a whack now and then. He is a charitable man. He 
is a preacher of God. And he ought to know what charity 
is. I have heard him speak. I do not wish to say any- 
thing against him. But I have all my life distrusted 
rhetoricians. People who have got tongues like his I do 
not take much stock in. They talk so much that their 
mouths get around on the sides of their faces. And so 
with others. They think nothing of saying the most cruel 
things about a public official, cruel things and mean things. 
But do they ever come in to help? No, never. They have 
never extended their hand to me and said " I will help 
you." Not a bit. 

They think that the police ought to go around clubbing 
everybody and doing as they see fit, but I disagree with 
that. I tried to reduce the police force to order. I have 
tried to cut it off from all graft. I know that I have suc- 
ceeded at least two-thirds, and I think I will succeed three 
thirds before I get through. But to have to do things 
against the ill will of people that ought to help you is a 
painful thing. Some clergyman named Carson the other 
night made a terrible philippic against me, literally flayed 
me alive, held me up as a vicious man and all that. I do 
not know what my neighbors who have seen me coming and 
going out for twenty-five years, think when they read such 

808 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND S TEECHES 

stuff from such people, not to mention what is printed in 
the newspapers. But I am here yet, and I am pretty well 
off and have some respect, as I perceive, and maybe I 
stand it better than they do. Maybe they are going down 
while they are talking and maybe their talk is really lifting 
me up a little. At all events I have no ill will against any 
of them. 

I have tried to give a good honest government to the 
city and I am satisfied with that. I have tried to rule the 
city on high ground. I have not allowed the city govern- 
ment in any branch, as every head of department will tes- 
tify to you, to be controlled or influenced by anybody on 
the outside. No politicians or boss or organization has 
any control whatever over this government, whether it be 
the Tenement House Department, the Dock Depart- 
ment, the Charities Department, or any other part of the 
city government. Now that means that I must get 
whacked a good deal. When I read on the card that your 
object is to promote good city government I was saying 
to myself: " After all isn't a man in office as Mayor here 
in a more comfortable position if he is the mere exponent 
of some pohtical party. Wouldn't it be easier for me to 
sit at the City Hall and turn the government pretty well 
over to Sam Koenig, or somebody else, and go on my way 
each day and when anything happened I have at least a 
big party to back me up and fight with me." 

Now, it seems when anything happens I have nobody 
to stand up with me, except the people in general, and 
very often they are too busy to bother their heads very 
much with it. The malignant ones seize hold of anything 
that happens. More than that, they go around and dig 
pitfalls for me to step into, and in that way my road is 
much harder and rougher than it would be if I had some 
sohd party back of me. I admit that. There is no doubt 
about it whatever. My course would be much easier if 
I reposed on some party and when I wanted to appoint a 
tenement house commissioner I could send word up to 
the leader of that party to send me down a tenement house 

309 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

commissioner and when I wanted a police commissioner 
I could do the same thing, and then if anything happened 
in the tenement house or the police departments I would 
have a party to stand up and fight with me. So there is 
something to have a party back of you, but I must say 
that would prostitute government in a way that I could 
not countenance. So when I was nominated for Mayor I 
was asked no questions. It was perfectly well known what 
my ideas were on that subject, and after I became Mayor, 
well, people made suggestions to me and I made the ap- 
pointments all my own and selected them all, and those 
who didn't get what they wanted said, " Well you are 
Mayor and you must do what you think best." So I have 
had no growl, no quarrel with anybody. I must say they 
have all been reasonable with me. I must say that. If 
they didn't get what they wanted they certainly have been 
reasonable and handsome toward me. I never will say 
otherwise than that. 

Now, the order of this community down here is never 
illustrated better than on Election Day. There was one 
candidate for Governor this year who was very apprehen- 
sive that this whole East Side was going to reek with cor- 
ruption on Election Day. He sent people to me to beg 
me to put police in every poll down here, and extra police 
all through here, and if I didn't do it they said there was 
going to be the greatest rioting and illegal voting down 
here that was ever known. I told them I didn't beheve it. 
I also received a letter from Dr. Ratner whom I do not 
know, and he gave it to me pretty hard, and he published 
his letter, and he said I ought to put police in every poll 
to put out everybody who had no right to vote. I wrote 
him that the police had no right to decide who should vote 
and who should not, that we elected election officers and 
the law clothed them with the power of conducting the 
elections, and that the police had no power to say to any 
man " You cannot vote." I told them they did that sort 
of thing in Russia and in Mexico. I did not know then 
that he was a Russian himself or I would not have used 

310 



MAYOR GAYNQR'S LETTERS A ND SPEECHES 

that word. But it seemed that I hit the nail right on the 
head. He wanted me to do what he had seen done in 
Russia, I suppose; put the sokliers and the pohee right in 
the polls and when a man that was going to vote the wrong- 
way came along to throw him out in the street. That 
was done in the city of New York for a long time. And 
it was terrihle that I would not allow the police to go in 
the polling places. I made them stand out in the street 
where they belong, and the strange thing is that they did 
not find out until this year that I did that. Every election 
that has occurred in New York since I have been JNIayor 
has been conducted in the same way. I had the order is- 
sued that the police should stay out on the sidewalk and 
walk up and down in a 100 foot space in front of the polls. 
If the election officers wanted anybody arrested the law 
gives them the power to arrest them on the spot. Then 
all they have to do is to call this policeman and say, " Take 
this man to a magistrate." But to put policemen in poll- 
ing places was never known in this world until it was done 
here. 

Every man is a sovereign on Election Day. He 
doesn't want to rub up against brass buttons at the door 
when he goes in to vote. The law does not permit any- 
body to interfere with him from the time he leaves his 
house until after he comes out of the polling place. Do 
you know that? And yet I have seen election officers in 
this city issue the day before Election threats that they 
were going to arrest 10,000 people in the polls and that 
10,000 warrants were out. The law makes the smallest 
threat a crime. A threat to deter people from going to 
the polls. Every man has a right to come to the polls. 
He may be challenged. If he is challenged what saith 
the law? An oath is put before him and read to him. If 
he takes that oath no power on this earth can stop him 
from voting. That is what that oath is for; in the lan- 
guage that we ordinarily use, he swears his vote in. No 
policeman, no election officer, no one from the President 
of the United States down to the humblest policeman can 

311 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

interfere with that man if he will take that oath. Well, 
you say in that way some people will vote fraudulently. 
Yes, a few will. But in the other way it will grow until 
thousands are thrown out of the polls and not allowed to 
vote. So the laws says of two evils we will take the lesser 
evil. It is so hard to get that into the heads of people from 
Russia like Dr. Ratner. And I am sorry to say it is hard 
to get it into the heads of some Americans too. They 
want everything done by the policeman. And yet in past 
years when there were frauds and repeaters at the polls 
in this city it was substantially all done through the Police 
Force. The repeaters went around in squads and when 
they felt the friendly hand of the policeman on their 
shoulders to move up and vote, they felt very courageous, 
and the police were very often given a list of these people 
and they waited for them to come along and encouraged 
them to go up and vote. But this has all gone. Nowhere 
in this country is there less illegal voting than right here 
in the city of New York and right here on the East Side 
of the city of New York. Why, I told the Commissioner 
to get me a list of the arrests made on Election Day. 
Most of them were made on warrants granted before 
Election. I am going to get, I cannot give it to you to- 
night, the number of people that were held for any criminal 
offense on Election Day. I doubt if it is five in the whole 
city, and yet we hear this talk year after year. 

And then there is a notion abroad that you people need 
poMcemen to keep you in order. When we have a political 
meeting people think they must have an army of police 
there. Now I did something this year that will make you 
laugh because nobody knew about it. It was given out 
in the paper that a Bull Moose meeting up at Madison 
Square Garden was to be policed by 1,000 policemen. 
Didn't you read that? Hearst put it in his paper, so it 
must be true. I had already two years ago instructed the 
Police Commissioner to stop sending policemen to political 
meetings except to large meetings that might need protec- 
tion on the outside. It used to be the fashion to have them 

312 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS A ND SPEECHES 

inside at meetings like this and at weddings and funerals. 
Now I asked Waldo how many he was going to have at 
the Bull Moose meeting. " Well," he said, " 1 guess 
ahout 100." I said, " Waldo, cut it down to 50." And 
there were just 50 policemen at that meeting. They were 
all on the outside and we didn't allow one to go in the in- 
side at all, but I suppose all the Bull Moosers think there 
were 1,000 pohcemen there. And I am going to tell you 
more, that the 50 that were there were not needed at all. 
Respectable American citizens can meet without 1,000 
policemen to keep them from cutting their throats. Why, 
up in the country where they have great political meetings 
in this state and all over they have no policemen and no 
constables there at all. Those people well understand they 
can take care of themselves. There is never anything done 
that is disorderly. You would think here that if we came 
to a meeting without the police we would all fall to and 
kill one another. We don't go to meetings for that pur- 
pose. We go to hear the orators and what they have to 
say, and then we go home peaceably. And then the Wil- 
son meeting was coming on, so I said to Waldo, " I have 
a notion to have no policemen go there." He said, " Well 
the others had 50, and maybe this year we ought to give 
them 50." So I said: " All right, let the 50 go." But the 
next time we will keep quiet and send nobody at all and 
see what happens. Now I have let the cat out of the bag 
so that if you have a big meeting here next year maybe 
there wdll be no pohcemen at all, and those people that 
read what I am saying tonight wall certainly, like Dr. Rat- 
ner, be writing me letters to send poUce to keep the people 
from kilUng one another. The general order and decency 
of the American people is not excelled an^^diere in the 
world. The British people would not allow policemen to 
go to their political meetings or interfere with them. 
Neither will they in any other part of Europe, except 
where despotism prevails, and I think we can do quite as 
well in the city of New York. 

The office of our police force is first of all to preserve 

313 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECHES 

outward order and decency, to keep the streets in good or- 
der, to prevent tumult and riot and disorder of all kinds, 
and keep the streets open to travel, to arrest felons whom 
they see on the streets, arrest whoever commits any serious 
criminal offense. That being done, then we have a secret 
service force to deal as best we can with gamblers and un- 
fortunate women, the cut-throats and people who do 
things in secret or behind closed doors. Those we have to 
take care of the best we can. Criminals will always be 
with us. 

Some people think that the Mayor ought to stop every- 
thing in 48 hours. He ought to be able not to have a single 
unfortunate woman in the streets, a single gambler, a 
single criminal. I have to ask some of these good people 
sometimes what they have done to rescue a single woman 
from the life that she is leading. There are societies here 
in this city which are working constantly in these works. 
I could almost kneel down to the men and women who 
work in them and devote their lives to it. Do they ever 
get up and denounce the city officials? Why, they come 
in to see us. They work with us. They are people of all 
denominations. They rescue boys, they rescue girls, they 
rescue unfortunate women. They try to make people bet- 
ter, and in that way, and in that way alone, my friends, 
the world grows better. The world does not grow better 
by force or by the policeman's club. He can only keep 
order, while the preachers preach and others work to 
morally uplift people so that they won't commit crime or 
vice. That is his office. Some would have it all done as 
you would eat a cookie, in half an hour, right off. Why, if 
we do it all, I tell them, now, we won't leave anything 
for our successors to do and they will feel lonesome. We 
can only do our part, and if we do that we do enough. 
The world is better today than it ever was before. It 
grows better all the time. It can only grow better grad- 
ually. All growth in this world that is good is gradual 
growth. You know how gradually the tree grows, how 
gradually the crops in the field grow and mature. How 

814 



MAYOR GAYNOR'S LETTERS AND SPEECITES 

gradually this body of ours grows from the mother's womb 
up, and how long this world was growing and was brooded 
over by Almighty God before it was fit for us to live in. 
And so it is in intellectual things and in spiritual things 
and in moral things. They can only grow by degrees, lit- 
tle by little. We have to be patient and make people bet- 
ter little by little, from generation to generation. Those 
great preachers who think I am such a bad man, if they 
would only do their share in that respect they would do 
all that Almighty God expects of them and all that lie 
knows they can do. That is the mission that you and I 
have and that is their mission, and let us carry it out as 
best we can. Let us work and teach in the only way that 
we can to lift up and improve, namely, patiently, day by 
day, little by little, yea, even as Isaiah says, " line upon 
line, line upon line, precept upon precept, precept upon 
precept, here a Httle, and there a little." 



315 



Index 



Accident Insurance; 257-260. 

Accidents: Arrests for; without warrant; 

22. 
Adams; John Quincy: 180, 187. 
Aldermen: Board of: Letter to: 130. 

Message to: 36. 
American Bankers' Association; Speech 

before: 264. 
American Peace and Arbitration League; 

221. 
Appraisal; Commissioners of: 17. 
Arrest; False report on a boy's: 68. 
Arresting: boys; 68, 82, 98, 198. 

children; 158, 181. 
Arrests; Citizen's right to make: 48. 

Diminished number of: 158, 182. 

Petty: 98. 

Unnecessary: 51. 

without warrant; 22, 158. 
Assassination; Attempt at: 13. 

Prisoners write after: 31. 

Inciting to: 299. 

Moral: 300. 



Bacon; Col. Alexander: still Sabbath; 84. 

Bake Ovens Case; 238, 250, 296. 

Ball-playing in streets; 55, 82. 

Bands; Neighbourhood: 189. 

Banks and bankers; 266, 268. 

Beard? Are you certain it is your: 40. 

Becker; 97, 102, 106, 196. 

Bilious critics; 138. 

Biliousness and piety; 114. 

Bill boards; 160. 

Bimetalism; 174. 

Biographical sketch of Mayor Gaynor; 7-14. 

Blackmail; The press and: 300. 

Bondsmen; Professional: 98. 

Books; 55, 64, 66, 159, 163, 168-177. 

Boys; Arresting: 68, 98. 

Letter to: 55. 

playing in streets; 54, 55, 82. 
Boyville; Mayor of: Letter to: 137. 
Bribery; 106. 
Burns; Robert: Birthplace of: 111. 



Cabbages; 64, 81. 

Carnegie Trust Company; 186. 

Carrots; 81. 

Cato as farmer; 63, 266. 

Cats; 80. 

Censorship; 130, 132. 

Cervantes; 65. 

Charities; Department of: 81. 

Charity and Justice; 271. 

Chickens; Teaching: to roost higher; 83. 

Children; Arresting: 158, 181. 

playing in streets; 55, 58, 82, 109. 
Christmas; 190. 

Citizens' Association Address; 208. 
City Beautiful Association; 160. 
Civil Service Commission; Letter to: 23. 
Clamor; 105, 145, 152, 184, 195, 301. 
Clay; 225. _ ,„, 

Clearwater; Hon. A. T.: 105. 
Cleveland; Grover: Chicago Convention; 
287 

and the' tariff; 225, 226. 
Coffee drinking; 71. 



Commerce; Expansion of: 228. 
Commission form of government; 149. 
Commission; Police: of 1905; 194. 
Commissioner of Police; 8, 102, 106, 167, 

195. 
Commissioners of Appraisal; 17, 164. 

Tax: 18. 
Compensation; Workmen's: 89. 
Competition and hob-nailed boots; 272. 
Congestion; 306. 
Constitution; English: 263. 

of U. S. A.; 125, 126. 
Coristitutional Convention; Periodical: 

242, 262. 
Constitutions; Amending: 239, 261, 262, 
263. 

need to be changed; 242. 

Lincoln on: 262. 
Cornaro; "Art of Living Long"; 50. 
Corruption in Police Department; 78, 192, 

292. 
Councils; City: Size of: 150. 
Court decisions; "Obstructive": 236, 243- 

264. 
Court House; Brooklyn: 18. 
Courts on Social and Economic Justice; 

243-264. 
Cowl; Clarkson: Police; 165. 
Creelman; James: Letters to: 32, 33. 
Criminals: Making: by arresting; 181. 
Criticism; 138, 182. 

of judicial decisions; 254. 
Cropsey; Commissioner: 77, 292. 
Cruelty to horses; 51. 

"Damaged Goods"; 148. 
Davis; Gherardi: Letter to: 177. 
Death; In presence of: 26. 
Democracy and Despotism; 87. 
Detective force; 101. 
Detectives; Little men for: 23. 

and stolen property; 73, 75. 
Dingley Tariff Act; 226. 
Disease; Prevention of: 46. 
Distribution; Just: 244. 

Prosperity and: 270. 
"Distributive Justice"; 36, 243, 264-273. 
Dix; John A.: Letter to: 34. 
"Don Quixote"; 20, 56, 64, 177. 
Doty; Dr. Alvah H.: Letter to: 46. 
Dred Scott Decision; 128, 129. 
Drinking on Sunday; 154. 
Drivers: Street Cleaning Department: 
"might freeze"; 16. 



Eagen; William: 68. 

East Side Club Address; 304. 

Edwards; W. H. : Letter to: 16. 

Eggs; How to boil: 134. 

Election Day on East Side; 310. 

Elections: Fraudulent: in Brooklyn. 10. 

Emancipation * Proclamation H^l^T^ 

from Abraham Lincoln .123- 
Employer^s'^Lial,ility^^Act:^_153. 238. 257. 

.^tS''Priestiss'of Humanity'': 96. 
Excise; Police and: 76. 



317 



INDEX 



Farmer; Cato as a: 63. 
Farmers; Address to: 272, 276 

Jews advised to become: 62. 

Prices obtained by: 276 
Farming; Lessons of: 272 
Flag; The Red: 36. 
Flatbush; Election at: 8. 
''^Foundations of Belief"; 171. 
" Foundations of the Nineteenth Cen- 
tury"; 38, 266. 
Fourth of July; Safe and Sane: 188 
irankhn; Benjamin: 37, 125, 128, 172, 

ciiOf 283. 
Frederick the Great; 171. 
Free speech and free press; 130 
Free trade; 226. 

Freedom of speech and of assembly; 36 
Freight rates; 240, 277, 278. 
Fremont campaign; 128. 
French Revolution; 172, 289 



Gamblers; Licensing of: 117, 120 
Gambling; 76, 94, 101, 102, 120,' 166, 191 

houses; 293. 
Gaynor, Mayor, Biographical Sketch, 7-14 
Gaynor; Miss Mary M. : Letter to: 26. 
Gaynor; Rufus: 26, 112. 
Genius; To an inspired: 159. 
George; Henry: 74, 178, 179, 216. 
George; Lloyd: 257. 
God; Belief in: 86. 
Gold; 233 277, 279. 
Good Friday; 20. 
Goode; 166, 196. 

Goodman; Elias B.: Letter to: 156 
Government; Three branches of: 126 

Commission form of: 149. 

Democracy and Despotism; i,7. 

of laws; 8, 23. 49, 71. 

registers the will of the people; 212. 
Governorship; Declines: 14, 32, 33, 34 
Graft; 17, 79, 80, 93, 97, 102, 103. 106, 

. 154, 166, 184, 192, 195, 291. 
Grand jurors; Payment of: 67. 
Grasshoppers and broom crop; 110. 
Greenberg; Assemblyman: 76, 80. 

Happiness; How to attain: 38, 90. 

Happy New Year; 71. 

Hard times; 233. 

Hayes; J. Noble: Letter to: 96. 

Hearst; W. R.: 291, 303, 312. 

TT „ newspapers; 209, 291, 303. 

Hell; "Vestibule of": 118. 

Hertz; 166, 196. 

Hillin; Edward: Letter to: 114. 

Holding Companies; 230, 241. 

Hold-ups; New York's "amazing record" 

of: 162. 
''Hollering" of newsboys; 42. 
Horses; Cruelty to: 51. 
Hubbell; Charles Buckley: Letter to: 63. 
Hyde Case; 184. 



" Imitation of Christ "; 175. 
Immigration; 109. 
Import tax for revenue; 224. 
Income tax; 262. 
Independence day: 87. 

Declaration of: 125. 
Independent; Article on Books and Read- 

ing; 168-177; On Walking; 42. 
Indictments against innocent persons; 184 
Insurance; Accident: 259. 

State: 259. 
" Intellectual Development of Europe " ■ 
159, 174, 283. ' 

Interest; 268. 
Introduction; 5, 6. 
International Peace, 221. 



Jacobs; Matter of: 249 

Japan; 222. 

.Tefferson; Thomas: 127, 172, 235 

.lefferson Day Banquet Address; 235-243 

Jesus; 72, 152, 190, 281. 

got ahead of his time; 289. 

Motives of: 287. 

"What would Jesus Do?" 155 
Jewish Theatre; Opening of: 274. 
Jews; 21, 39, 62, 91, 92. 
Johnson; Robert U. : Letter to: 139 
Journalism of New York City; 31 
Journalistic scoundrels; 31. 
Judicial decisions; Criticism of- 254 

Recall of: 152. 
Judge; Mayor Gaynor as a: 11 
Jurors; Grand: 67. 
"Justice: Distributive:" 36, 90, 243, 264- 



Keech; Rev. F. J.: Letter to: 135. 
Ivesslers Second Avenue Theatre; Speech 

at: 274. 
Kirk Alloway; 111. 



Lands for city; Waste in acquiring: 17 
Laws: cannot cure ills; 291. 

not enforceable should not be passed; 

A government of: 8, 23, 40 71 
Leaders; Political: 212. 
Lecky; "History of European Morals"; 

Liberty; Interference with: 236, 246. 
Lincoln; Abraham: 120-130, 138, 141, 182 
212, 282. 
on constitutions; 243, 262 
as a lawyer; 285. 

" only tried to keep up with the peo- 
ple"; 289. 
Liquor Law; 99, 191. 
Local Government; National politics and: 

304. 
Lochner Case; 251. 
Long life; How to attain: 50. 
Loti; Pierre: 139. 
Lustgarten; Mr.: 304. 



McKane; John Y.: 10. 
McKinley: on reciprocity; 227. 

Tariff Act; 225. 
McLaughlin; Rev. Robert W. : Letter to: 

120. 
Magna Charta; 236, 246. 250. 296. 
Marcus Aurelius; 80, 105, 170. 
Marriage; Advice on: 95. 

fees; Aldermen and: 112. 

fees at City Hall; 59. 

and sex; Books on: 163. 
Massachusetts Bill of Rights; 126. 
"Maternity"; 148. 
Mayor Gaynor: 12. 

Biographical Sketch, 7-14. 

First letter as: 15. 

Power of the: 193. 
Mayors and political parties; 309. 
Metropolitan tower clock; 113. 
Military; Use of: in strikes; 60. 
Mill; Tohn Stuart: 37, 81. 267. 
Miller; Rev. O. R. : Letter to: 25. 
Mills; Edgar: Letter to: 137. 
Minors; Employment of: 297. 
Morgan & Co.; 146, 147, 299. 
Morrill Tariff Act; 225. 
Morrison; Rev. William: Letters to: 20, 

111. 
Motherhood; Tribute to: 137. 
Motion Picture Theatres; Prize fight pic- 
tures; 25, 114. 
Ordinance relative to: 130. 



318 



INDEX 



Motion Pictures; Censorship of: 130. 
Music; Classical: 161, 189. 
in playgrounds; 41. 



Nature Study in schools; 188. 
Negroes; Inferiority of: 128. 
New Year; Happy: 71. 
New York; Conditions in: 304-315. 

Credit of: 144. 

"decorous and orderly"; 163. 

Hold-ups in: 162. 
Newsboys hollering"; 42. 
Newspaper: dictation; 300. 

falsehoods; 245. 

writers; Degradation of: 189. 
Newspapers; 83, 105, 110, 124, 137, 154, 

162, 163, 190, 211, 299, 307. 
Night Courts unnecessary; 51. 
Noise and Dr. Parkhurst; 113. 
Northern Bank; 186. 
Northrop; W. B.: Introduction; 5, 6 
Nuisances; Public: Gambling houses and 
houses of ill fame are: 195, 196, 
293. 



Office; Good men in: 291. 
Officials; Abuse of: 208. 
O'Gilby; W. S. R. : Letter to: 83. 
"Old-Fashioned Woman"; 163. 
Oneida; Address to Sons of: 201. 
Orator; Requisites of an: 172. 
Oratory; 286. 

Outlook; Article on Roosevelt; 23. 
Overcrowding in prisons; 61. 
Overtime; working: 56. 



Paine; Thomas: 126, 157. 

Parkhurst; Rev. C. H. : 113, 114, 117, 213. 

Letter to: 151. 
Parks: 177. 

Classical music in the: 188. 
Parsons; Mrs.: "The Family"; 163. 

" The Old-Fashioned Woman"; 163. 

" Primitive Fancies about the Sex "; 
163. 
Paternoster Case; 176. 
Patrolman's kind act; 20. 
Pawnshops; 73, 75. 
Payne Act; 226. 
Peace; International: 221. 
Penn; William: 150. 
Pension Fund; Street Cleaners': 90. 
Pension Laws and Workmen's Compensa- 
tion; 89. 
Personal Tax; Reminiscences, 17, 201-208. 
Philosophy in barnyard: 44. 
Pictures; Prize fight: 25, 114. 
Piety and biliousness; 114. 
Pincus; Joseph W.: Letter to: 62. 
Playgrounds; Music in: 41. 

on roof; 56. 
Police; 165. 

arresting boys; 68, 82, 98. 

Commendation of: 154. 

Commission of 1905: 194. 

Commissioner; 8, 102, 106, 167, 195. 

corruption; 78, 165, 195. 

First duty of the: 313. 

East Side: 306. 

Election frauds; 310. 

control over excise, gambling, and 
prostitution; 76. 

force less corrupt than for thirty 
years; 195. 

maltreating citizens; 97. 

Manual; Preface to: 157. 

being reduced to order; 308. 

at the Polls; 107, 310, 311. 

Power Law; 253, 255. 

and prostitution; 76, 94. 



reforms and " Eternal Priestess of 
Humanity "; 96. 

Special: 98. 
Policeman; Each citizen a: 48. 
Policemen; Big and little: 23. 

Special: 52, 53. 
Political parties; Mayors and: 309. 
Politics; Advice on entering: 279-304. 

National: in local affairs; 304, 305. 

National, State and Local: 305. 

State: 165. 
Polls; Police at the: 107, 310, 311. 
I'rayer against lying; 35, 36. 
Presidency not m mind: 32. 
Politics Club; Speech to the: 279. 
Press; Coercion by the: 300. 

Corrupt: 298. 

Freedom of: 130. 
Prices; 232, 276. 

Gold production and: 233, 277. 

High: Tariff and Gold Speech; 223- 
225. 

of protected goods in other coun- 
tries; 226. 

and supply and demand; 235. 

Trusts and: 229, 233. 
Prisoner; Letter to: 31. 
Prisons; Overcrowding in: 61. 

Vice in: 61. 
"Progress and Poverty"; 75. 
Prosperity and just distribution; 244, 270. 
Prostitutes; 116, 119, 184. 
Prostitution; 76, 94, 103, 104, 105, 117, 

192. f 

Protection of wages; 225, 226. 
Protective Tariffs; 225. 
Public lands; Waste in Condemning: 17. 
Public nuisances; 293. 
Purcell; 169. 
Purring people; 164. 



Race tracks; 101. 

Rag-bag newspapers; 142, 154. 

Raids; Police: 101. 

Railroads; 240, 277. 

Ratcatcher; A learned: 19. 

Reading; 169. 

Recall; 145, 151, 152, 245. 

Reciprocity; 227. 

Red flag; 36. 

Reform; 212. 

Reminiscences; Personal: 201-208. 

Reno fie;ht pictures; 25, 29, 114. 

Rent; 214. 

Reporters; 190. 

Restitution; 57. 

Revolution; War of the: 123. 

Rhetoricians; 91, 92, 95, 96, 135. 

Riverside Drive stage coaches; IS. 

Robinson; Allan: Letter to: on Police; 76. 

Rogues' Gallery injustice; 74, 98. 

Roller-skating in streets; 58, 109. 

Roosevelt; Theodore: 17, 23, 299. 

Rosenthal; 77, 91, 196. 292. 

Russia and Japan; 179. 

Ryan; Tom: City sold out to: 299. 



Sabbath; 84, 111. 

Saloons; 99. 

Santa Claus; 114, 191. 

Schiff & Co.: 146, 147. 

Schools; Public: 87, 188. 

Seat hogs; 162. 

Secret Service force; 314. 

Sheahan; Thomas: Letter to: 21. 

Single tax; 74, 179, 214-221. 

Sipp; 77, 166, 196, 294. 

Shivery; 130, 138. 

Smith; R. A. C: Letter to: on Books; 64. 

Socialism: 36, 37, 239. 258. 271. 

Speech; Freedom of: 130. 

Spelling: "Simplified": 16, 19. 



319 



INDEX 



Spitting; Man arrested for: 83. 

stick pins; 106. 

Stolen property; Pawnshops and: 73 75 

Mreet Cleaners' Strike; 60. 

Street Opening Bureau; 17. 

ilrikt! eofTs^ '"= ''' "• '^' «2. 109. 
Subways; i^, 61, 142-145, 146-148 212 
298, 299, 301, 302. ' ' 

Sugar tariff; 226. 
Sugar trust; 229. 
Sullivan-Short Bill; 7 A. 
Sulzer; Hon. William: Letter to: 164 
Summonses; 157. 
Sunday; 84, 85, 154. 
Supply and demand; 235. 
Syracuse Fair; Speech at: 273 



TarfJ.' S-"'E^ Justice: on negroes; 128. 
lariff: High Prices, and Gold: 223. 

History of the American: 223 

High prices and the: 223. 

question local and selfish; 226. 

Public opinion and the: 227 

for revenue only; 225. 

taxation; Extremes of: 225 
Tariffs are too high; 224. 

and prices at home and abroad; 226 

and profits; 225. 

War: 225. 
Tax: Commissioners; 18. 

Income: 262. 

Personal: 17. 
Taxes; Rents and: 214. 
Tenement House Tobacco Case; 237, 248 
296. ' ' 

Thieves and usurers; 266. 
Thompson; Commissioner: 26, 136 
Ihompson; Dr.: 50. 
Thoren; Harvey: 110. 
Tilden presidential campaign; 225 
Titanic; 81. 
Tolstoy; 178, 180. 
Trade; Expansion of: 228. 
Trust; Definition of a: 229 
Trusts; 229, 240. 

and freight rates; 278. 

made legal in New Jersey; 230, 231. 

and prices; 229, 231. 

How to get rid of the: 231, 241. 
Tucker; 180. 
Tweed frauds; 150, 209. 



Underground Bake Ovens Case; 238, 250, 

Unitarians; 127. 

Usurers and thieves; 266. 

Usury; 266. 

Defence of: 267. 

Value; 234. 

Vice Commission; 76. 

Vice; Definition of: 306. 

Department; Veto of separate: 191-197 

in prisons; 61. 

Scattering: 116. 

Segregating: 118, 156, 183. 
Virtue; Segregating: 156. 
Voltaire; 171. 
Voting; Fraudulent: 107. 

Illegal: 312. 



w^FJ^' fe?"?^', '■^tes of: 257. 260. 
Waldo; Khinelander: Letters to- 51 52 
. 53. 68, 73, 106, 165. ' ' 

Walking; 16, 42, 110. 
War tariffs; 225. 
Warrant; Making arrests without: 52 158 

Breaking into houses without:' lOOi 
193, 194. 
Washington and Lincoln; 120-130. 
Waste in condemning public lands; 17 
Water: Company deal in Brooklyn; 9 

Department and waste of water; 136 

supply in houses; 49. 
Watson; A. R.: Letters to: 17. 164. 
Watterson, Mr.: 32. 
Webster; 285. 

Weights and measures; 180, 187 
Weston; E. P.: 16. 44, 110. 
Wife; Finding a: 58. 
Williams Case; 255. 
Wilson Tariff Act; 226. 
Wilson; Woodrow: 169. 
"Wink" letter to little girl; 58. 
Wise; Rabbi: 91, 92. 95. 96, 102, 114. 

134, 308. 
Witte; Count: 178. 

Women's Night Work Case; 238, 254 297 
Wool; Free: 225, 226. 
Workmen's Compensation; 89. 



Yale Forum; Address before: 243-264. 



320 



I 







.^ 






,4q 



'^ ■'%M. 



, ' * o, \> \/- 

A^ ^.-^S^^:^ ^. ^ »v 

^ , V^ G . - o -^^ • 



1*°' '^^ 








o 



,v 






.-Js>:- 0^°"'^- 







.0 



^. 







'^^ 

"5^. 



4 o 
^^,^ .E^ "o 



<\ ~' .♦ ^' ,0^ ■'o 







Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process \*^ 







IBebkkeeper 

PRESERVATION TECHNOLOGIES. L P 
1 1 1 Thomson Park Drive 
Cranberry Township, PA 16066 
(724)779-2111 



1998 '^^ V|! 



^^ 






3 
O 



• ' l<^ 



ih ^' -^ '-1-,, 



• ^^ % 



^ 



o V 









^. 



^ 

' O' 






■~ . 



•4- 















.-j^- 



'i^ 












'-T' 



-J' 



•^0^ :i 



0^ *\,r,^-' 



-Z' 



o 
o 



<Jk . o " o 



..-^ . • 



^ ./^ 






■j3 












•^ 



0° .v^vr^^ 






o 




o M o 



^--^.€^ /'\ -Sk^ ^'\ ^^^^ ^'\ ^Bi 



o V 



o 



0)^ « • " ■^ 









,v 



• ; 1 






(H 






'^^ ,^ 









^V 



V-^ 



C" 



o 



.0^ 



o 



VX 



,0- 



^„ 



^0 



.0 










^'^'^ 0":^"'^"% 






V-' 



s^ 



1. ' 







^ y^/;?. 
















LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 





